Heroes Fan Fiction: A Capable Woman: 12/28 - Arthur, Angela, Linderman - Talk of Claire.

Title: A Capable Woman: A Life Story of Angela Petrelli
Author: thepandorarose (Fanfiction.net Account)
Chapter: Chapter 12 (12/28)
Characters/Pairings (This chapter): Angela, Arthur, Linderman (Talk of Claire & Nathan) (If linking please include all characters previous listed)
Summary: We are not all born full of sin, we acquire it over time.
Chapter 12 Summary: Angela first dreams of Claire. Plans and "arrangements" are made.
Category: General (with a splash of tragic love)
Status: Incomplete
Rating: PG-13 (for adult themes)
Warnings: a few Danielle Steel / Heroes moments. :)
Spoiler alert: The entire series
Note: Each chapter is written as one whole, separate, story and be viewed as such. Together they are a life. (For explanation of the entire series see prologue post)

Previous chapters: PROLOUGE ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN

 

Chapter 12

The Petrellis

1985

Arthur Petrelli always remarked how oftentimes his wife had the oddest times to reveal her dreams to him. Most of the time her dreams would wake them both in the middle of the night and he would soothe her and she would tell him her tales. No matter what state their marriage was in, he would always be there when she woke up. But other times Angela Petrelli seemed to relate her dreams to her husband as if she had almost forgotten to tell him to pick up a carton of milk on the way home. It was just old hat for her, perhaps it was pent up anger, perhaps Angela just took it all for granted sometimes.

Most of the time it was because when Angela didn’t wake in the middle of the night, but in the morning, she would be up hours before her husband and with time to burn. Time to think and time to be scared and cautious - time to hatch out plans.

On this particular morning Angela sat at her vanity, looking in the mirror and setting her earrings to her ears, while her husband walked out of the bathroom fixing his tie around his neck.

“I dreamt last night we had a granddaughter.” Angela made sure the backing of her earring was in place.

Arthur looked at her in the mirror. “When?”

“Four years...I’m not sure.” She set a bracelet on her wrist.

“Nathan?”

“He’s too young,” her voice drifted off.

“He’ll be not that much older than you.”

Angela turned from the mirror to face her husband. “He’s too young,” she demanded.

“Don’t project you own fears and regrets on him. If it happens – he’ll be a man and do the right thing.”

“She has an ability, “ she said crossly.

“The girl?”

“The mother.”

“Angela...” he scolded.

“You know what that means...”

“Angela,” he pressed, as he walked toward her.

“I will not let another member of this family suffer for our sins, Arthur.” Her voice was clear and forceful.

“And keeping him from marrying one of us, you think that’s the way? There are no guarantees --we have seen children with one parent--”

“It’s still not a certainty. There’s a chance it could all stop--”

“He’ll step up and do the right thing if this comes to pass.” Arthur was done with this conversation; he’d had enough.

“Nathan has a destiny.”

“Whose to say this isn’t part of his destiny, Angela?”

“I say it isn’t!”

“Sometimes I don’t know who you are anymore...”

“You made me who I am, Arthur – don’t act surprised.”

He shook his head as if he was editing his reply. “Well, just because I created it, doesn’t mean I have to like it.” They both stared each other down for a moment.

“I have to go to work.” Arthur grabbed his jacket off the bed and was gone.

“Something’s just not right?” Angela muttered to herself. “Something’s just not right about this whole thing.” Angela just couldn’t put her finger on it yet, but she knew there was more to this story.

Primatech - Odessa, Texas

A Few Months Later

“He’s dead, “ Linderman snapped as he threw a bloody towel against the lab table. “Damn it!” He hit the table and it shook.

“Of course he’s dead, use Adam’s blood,” Angela reprimanded him with all her regal stature.

“I did. It’s not working.” He slammed his fist against the table.

“How can it not work? It worked on him the last time and it was nothing compared to this--”

“His body is rejecting it. See, if we had gotten Victoria to stay, we would have known this beforehand...” He wasn’t happy. “We would know so much more than we do...” He looked away for a moment.

“What are you saying?”

“If we could find another regenerator we could do research, we could figure this thing out – but I can only assume the body absorbs it and then that’s it. No more free chances.”

“So, you’re saying...”

He looked deep in her eyes. “ We’re all mortal now.” And Linderman left the room to inform Suzanne that her husband was dead. She left the group shortly afterward

A Week Later

It was such a nasty dream; it was hard to recall without it being shards, images and bright flashes. Angela had been talking to Nathan when it started, when she got the first glimpses of it, but of course Nathan had no idea, no one ever did. Angela didn’t flinch or move a muscle unlike herself. It was bloody, but Angela had seen bloody, what made it so disturbing was that at the center of the scene was her granddaughter, Nathan’s daughter, the blonde cheerleader.

“I don’t agree with your decision, but if you want to follow your father’s footsteps into the military, I can’t stop you.”

Nathan was telling his parents that he had just been excepted to Annapolis. He would be a “fly boy”, the irony was not lost on Angela.

And while Nathan was congratulated by his father with a nice cigar and a stiff glass of scotch in the study, Angela sat at the breakfast table a little worried and yet not so anxious. She soon felt her small little man, Peter, running his head under her arm and resting his head on her waist– he was six. She pushed a few strands of hair away from his face and kissed him on the forehead.

“He’ll be fine, my love...” she said looking into his eyes and then off toward Nathan. “I can guarantee that.” Just because she knew the future didn’t mean Angela still didn’t worry. The future can change, but not if she had anything to do about it.

The Petrelli Home

1989

Angela awoke with a name this time. A name on her lips and that name was Claire.

The room was bright and Angela was surprised to see she had slept through eleven o’clock -- she was alone in the house.

Arthur Petrelli’s Law Firm

Manhattan

Angela charged her way into Arthur’s law firm as she did most places, like she owned it. She wore black gloves and a white wrap with fake black fur along the edges, a thin black purse under her right arm and her hair pulled up in a French twist.

They tried to stop her as she blew past the interns and Arthur’s secretary, bursting her way into Arthur’s office. What she found was Arthur standing next to his desk, leaning in very close to one Ms. Paula Gramble.

“Excuse me,” Angela said with very little emotion. “I’ve obviously interrupting something.” It was hard for Angela not to be jealous of any time another woman spent in her husband’s presence, when she herself had so little - but when it was a member of the group it seemed to boil her temperature to other areas of envy.

“I was just leaving...” Paula took her purse and walked to the door. “Angela...” she said as she passed her.

“Paula...” Angela said curtly as Paula exited and closed the door behind her. “And here I thought you had a thing for blondes.”

“Now, that was uncalled for,” Arthur said smartly.

Angela knew that Arthur had never cheated on her, but she knew he had tried and Arthur knew it too.

“It’s a little hard to run around on a pre-cog, “ he once joked to Daniel.

But Angela knew that behind that school-boy bravado lived something else and perhaps it was the man she first fell in love with. See, Angela had seen the one time Arthur had tried, not in person, but about two hours before, across town. And he did have a taste for blondes, just like his son Nathan would. Both Petrelli men had a penchant for blondes; they would just marry brunettes. But what all the Petrelli men had in common, Arthur, Nathan and Peter, was that they all fell for strong women - just like their mothers.

It was just after Kaito and perhaps it was Arthur’s revenge on her. He had gotten as far as Suzanne’s bedroom. He had ordered her to take her clothes off, because he liked saying it, he had touched her, kissed her, had her lying on the bed, but then he stopped, said he was sorry and left her apartment.

Still, the couple were at odds with each other these last years; Angela with another one of her family missions, leaving Arthur confounded and left in the dust. When Angela dreamed there was no way Arthur could not be five steps behind her. She just knew more than he could ever know - Angela just dreamed bigger.

Angela held onto the doorknob and adjusted her weight onto her other foot, just a small shade of a fidget left from her childhood - Arthur knew it well.

Angela took a few steps forward into the room and talked softly. “I came by because I thought you would like to know what your granddaughter’s ability is,” she said as if proving herself right and him wrong. “I guess I was mistaken, you obvious have more important things to occupy your time.” And she turned for the door.

“Don’t you walk away.” Arthur grabbed her arm, hard, before she could get the door all the way open. He closed the door shut with his other hand and snarled in her face, “Don’t you use this family’s future to manipulate me, Angela. I have just as much stake in this family as you do.”

“Then act like it! At least pretend that you care about what happens to this family after we’re gone.”

“Oh, come on now? You don’t think everything I did, everything I’ve ever done hasn’t been for you, hasn’t been for those two boys and this family. I did it for you,” he demanded. “I was trying to give you the world.”

Angela took in heavy breaths as if holding in her anger. “Well, I don’t want it anymore. You can have it!” And she tore away from his grip and opened the door.

Arthur took her arm and shut the door in her face again. “What can she do?” he asked like a good company man.

Angela didn’t flinch or take her eyes off the door. “Let me out!”

“You came to tell me what she can do.” Arthur’s voice was cold and slow.

“You want to know so bad?” She turned to him. “She’s a healer, Arthur,” Angela cried out, losing her strength for a moment, but not fully. “She’s a healer.” It was like all their sins were slapping them in the face.

Angela regained her full composure.

“Like Linderman?” he was confused as to why she was reacting in such a way.

“Like Adam.” The word Adam seemed to cut the air like a razor blade.

Arthur was struck and he let go of Angela’s arm.

“Happy now.” Her eyes glittered with the tears she held in and she wouldn’t allow him to see. And Angela stormed out of Arthur Petrelli’s office past a large sign with the godsend symbol on it.

Arthur & Angela Petrelli

The Petrelli home

Later that night.

Arthur sat in his study, drinking a scotch, the fire was burning, putting him in shadows in the dimly lit room. He stood up and crossed to the fireplace where a few family photographs were set on the mantel. His eyes fixated on a picture of himself with Nathan and Peter. He lifted the picture off the mantel to get a better look and his eyes filled with emotion.

Angela walked in unnoticed and closed the two doors behind her. Arthur didn’t know she was in the room until he heard the door shut. He pulled in his emotion quickly like the alpha dog he was.

“Peter asleep?” Arthur set the picture back on the mantel and took a drink of his scotch. He walked toward Angela.

“Yes.” She moved her head and slid her shoulder length hair behind her ear. This caused the other side of her hair to fall over her face, but before she could push it back Arthur set the strand behind her other ear.

They caught eyes.

“Who does she look like?” he asked, never taking an eye off her face.

“She looks like her mother.” Angela looked away.

Arthur ran his hand over the side of Angela’s face.

“What happened to us, Angie?” He hadn’t called her that in a long time.

“I don’t have time to fight right now.”

“I don’t want to fight.” He sincerely meant it.

Angela walked away from Arthur toward his desk. “I don’t know how long we have before she’s born.”

“What have you seen?” he said as if asking for the daily news report. He finished his drink and set the glass down on his desk.

Angela turned to face Arthur. “Bob ...he...was taking her blood. The rest were all images – nothing more concrete, it might be a representation of the Company, it may not even be Bob—but then again...”

“Bob? He wouldn’t—“

“Desperation times make people do desperate things, Arthur. We both know that.”

“I know you think I don’t have as many regrets as you do --we both do Angela. This shouldn’t be driving a wedge further and further between us – talk to me, don’t make demands at me.”

“You weren’t there for me before... why should I expect any different now.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you, Angela.”

“’If sorry fixed the world’ – isn’t that what you use to say.” She was cold and condescending.

“I use to say a lot of things.” His voice had shame in it.

“Did you ever really love me?” It was a serious question filled with a quiet rage.

“Would you believe me anymore if I said, yes?”

“I’m not sure.” She really didn’t know.

“I do...” He said it as if he was surprised, but he meant it.

“Love is overrated,” she gestured quickly with her head.

“I don’t think you believe that,” he said pointedly.

“You taught me that by the way,” she snarled at him.

“Life taught you that,” he was firm.

“Same difference,” her voice was soft and cold. Angela roamed around the room.

“I’m sorry I brought this darkness into this house, but you’re not blameless in this matter -- don’t go around pretending that you’re all white lilies and angel wings.”

“I have no problem admitting to that,” she said flatly. “We both brought this madness into this house. And there is nothing wrong with me wanting our children and our children’s children not to suffer the same fate. We’ve sold our souls for it, we shouldn’t be bringing them down with us.”

“‘At least you tried’,” he echoed her words in the same spot she had stood when she told him she was pregnant with Peter.

“I want to give her everything I never had. Choice.”

“Choice?”

“If she grows up without us she’ll have the opportunity to grow up and develop into a woman who can make her own choices and not have them thrust upon her. Without this albatross around her neck." Angela paused for a moment." Where she’s not a Petrelli.”

Arthur started to have a change of heart or perhaps he was still in denial. “She can make choices here, here with her family - we can protect her.”

“From being a science experiment? Until she becomes an adult and she can’t defend herself, she’ll always be hunted, if not by the Company –“

“We built this company – I built this company. I don’t believe you. I don’t believe they’d do that to this family. To one of our own.”

“You mean like we turned on Adam.”

“It’s not the same thing.” He was shocked by the comment.

“The group can be very persuasive can’t it, Arthur? Keeping your head above water. Because, we’re already drowning. Drowning in our own choices.” She walked closer to him “ Thirsty for another shot at immortality, “ she almost mocked in his direction.

“They wouldn’t do that to one of our own.”

“We’ve both seen it happen.”

“But, that was for the greater good.”

“And where does it end? Harry himself, said if we had another healer we could figure out a way to kill Adam for sure.”

“He’s become a bitter, bitter man.”

“Who hasn’t?” She took Arthur’s empty glass and poured him another scotch.

After she set the glass down on his desk, he grabbed her wrist. Angela stiffened, yet showed no signs of it on her face.

“You think they want Adam dead that badly they’d experiment on a little girl. That they all want to find another way to cheat death so much they would do this to us – to this family.”

She leaned in closer. “I know what we created.”

Arthur let go of her wrist. His soul seemed to shrink as Arthur remembered how he had caused this; he had started the crusade to find another regenerator. It was all too ironic for words. There was a moment of silence between them. “How long?” His voice was low and caught in his thoughts.

“It could be any day now. Weeks. Months. It’s hard to tell.”

Arthur took a deep breath and nodded his head – he looked defeated.

Angela continued .“And whenever he comes home with this news, we both will have our roles to play.”

“Think about your future, Nathan.” Arthur seemed to grow taller.

“Poison his mind to the mother, you know the best way to do that, don’t you?” She knew his hold over their son.

“She’s trash. She’s low level, trailer park, they’re too young...”

“Yes.” Angela smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “He won’t know it but he’ll thank us later. We’re protecting his child, Arthur, our granddaughter.”

“I know.” He nodded his head. He was as resolute about it as she was.

“If you ever really loved me, you’ll do this for me.” Her voice was hurt with a broken heart.

Angela went for the door as Arthur took a drink from his glass.

Angela’s emotions started to brim to the surface and she paused at the door frame. “There is one last thing.” She couldn’t look at him. “What you asked me before?”

Arthur turned toward her.

Angela looked at her husband; they both looked broken. What they were about to do to their son may have been for the better, but it was something they knew, if ever discovered, would be unforgivable. “She has your eyes.” Angela left Arthur’s office and the door slammed unintentionally.

And for the first time Arthur felt what his wife had been feeling for years -- alone. Yet, somehow through all of it, in this moment, these plans that Arthur and Angela were putting together brought them closer together than they had been in years. They weren’t just fighting together side by side to save the world, or protect their secrets; they were now on the same side: the family. Arthur finally saw everything from Angela’s side, as he too feared the same fears for his families future, what it held, and what he had done to bring them there. Arthur Petrelli had brought a plague on to his own house, and now it was his job to save it.