seekevolution | The Storm

Matt shook his head and put a hand to Mohinder's arm. A grip, not just a touch. His eyes were dark. Much too serious. "Do you really think these people have any hope left? You saw what's out there. That's one month. I'm not sure people will last another one."

He didn't really dare hope himself, despite Mohinder outright saying that a solution was coming. When you'd seen too much death and destruction you stopped seeing anything else. Matt wanted to kiss Mohinder again partially because of that. He represented before. Something good and stable that he didn't have to second-guess.

He didn't though, not right then. He looked back to Peter.

"Most people won't believe us if we say there's a cure", he said out loud. "And there's no way there'll be food or water for another month." He'd gotten so used to ballparking with Peter that he would show a tendency to forget about the other two. It wasn't about exclusion but efficiency. But after a short beat he seemed to remember that Mohinder came from the outside, and he squeezed his arm a bit when he turned his head back to him.

"What's it look like out there?"

Another kiss would have been welcomed, though perhaps for later. Mohinder wanted to speak to Matt alone first any way. He didn't care for the look in his eyes. The hardness made him worry for the mental state Matt was in and clouded himself in guilt and grief. He never should have left. They should have stayed--

But it had been unavoidable, it truly had been. With Molly, her safety was paramount.

"It's not a cure," Mohinder said immediately, looking between Matt, who held his arm, and Peter. "If a person contracts the virus before I can inoculate them, the disease is fatal within three days." That last bit was nothing no one knew. "It takes less than an hour to incubate the disease and Shanti grows in the lungs...it's passed on through breath. Non-infected can not be carriers."

Peter frowned. "Inoculate them how? We tried giving people Claire's blood--"

"It's my blood...and the blood of the three percent of people out there immune to the virus. It's why Matt and Molly are immune. I gave them my blood."

This was all information that came just a little too late, but he'd been doing important work, important research. Even as Matt tried his hand at protecting people that were slowly returned to more savage lifestyles.

He took the centre platform here, back in professor mode, lecturing to the three surrounding him. He felt more in his element here, nothing could be said to change that.

"It's bad out there. Your footage from this city set off panic. There's been three new outbreaks, but no one can figure out how. Sickness comes too quickly and is carried only short distances."

Mohinder likely had reason to worry. Matt was a good person, still tried to be, but a lot of his gentler nature had been stripped away in favor of hard practicality and a sense of ruthlessness. He didn't have the same luxury of emotions he'd had earlier. Peter had a similar look about him. New York wasn't an easy place to be in.

But information was good, and moreover, it was good news. Matt's eyes widened a fraction. "So we're safe", he not-quite-questioned out loud, and at the confirmation he turned to Peter again. "That means we could get these people out of here. If there's anywhere to take them -"

Anywhere at all. It was the situation that made these people cruel. They needed help, were malnourished and weak and desperate, had lost too much. Peter brightened a little at the prospect of actually being that help. Getting to make a difference.

It'd expose them, though. Matt couldn't be sure how much of a problem that would be, but it needed serious consideration and he started pacing again as he thought out loud.

"Is there anywhere they could get help? Centers, hospitals, whatever?"

That was more to Mohinder.

"If not, we need one. We have to get these people out. Does people know we're not contagious?"

"Washington most certainly ought to," Mohinder said, matter-of-factly. "I wrote the missive myself before we even left Atlanta to beg them to send the military back into the cities." That had been a week ago. "Of course, I got myself a bit caught up, and Atlanta was hit soon after. I still believe there must be a place for these people. You certainly can't stay here."

He wouldn't leave Matt, not ever again. Wanting to take his hand, Mohinder still refrained for now. There will be time later for these things. Today? They had to regroup. Had to leave.

"Come back with us to Pinehearst. They'll be better able to coordinate a rescue. It's perhaps one of the most secure research facilities I've ever worked in. There are riots at the door but thus far, no breach. And the riots are bound to stop once the inoculations begin being distributed."

So many pretty words. Mohinder believed them all. It was both to his credit and his general detriment.

"Please. A shower, a shave... And then we'll get these people out of here." He needed to remind Matt that the world was still good.

Matt shared a dubious look with Peter. He could tell that Mohinder fully believed what he was saying but that didn't actually instill total confidence, not that that was Mohinder's fault. There was a divide now between their experiences. Being on the other side of the riots Mohinder described had left marks on both the other men.

At the same time, their options were dwindling. They couldn't do much to help these people from the inside anymore.

So Matt nodded, after a second, and went right back to pick up his gun again, already mentally on his way.

"How many other places are quarantined?" he asked over his shoulder. Molly looked at him in a way he didn't quite like but he wasn't sure how to reassure her right now. "You need to give us the full rundown."

Mohinder looked at Matt as if he had four heads and shook his head, going instead to Molly to get her seated and to give her some water. It had been a harrowing few hours and sure, nothing like what Matt experienced, but...maybe he'd been expecting a warmer greeting (other than whatever fierce passion they'd experienced) from the other man after a month of separation. He knew it wasn't fair of him to think that and he corrected himself immediately.

Giving Matt 'full detail' was impossible. Mohinder had his nose stuck in a lab for almost eighteen hours every single day, only stopping to sleep when he found himself with his nose in the spine of a notebook and his writing incomprehensible.

"Boulder, Boston, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago and Saint Louis are uninhabitable. Everyone else has quarantineed themselves. There'd been a few stories about people being suspected of having the virus turned out or killed, even if it was just the flu. There's martial law just about everywhere. It sounds bad. It is bad. But it won't stay that way. A few more days is all we need."

And a few months later to synthesis the product.

Who knows what damage will be done by then?

If Matt overheard those thoughts he didn't say or think anything in response. But he kept close to his family despite the apparent distance he displayed, wanting to keep his eyes on them. Stood next to Mohinder and gave Molly a long look which she silently returned.

The list was a worrying one. But it could have been worse, he supposed. Peter latched onto that, saying something about how given the size of the country, that really wasn't so bad.

Matt remained cautious, however.

"I hope so", he said darkly in response, looking out the windows for a moment, at the complete lack of movement and the smoke still visible at a distance. "We don't have more time if we want people to come out of this alive."

He made a quick round along the loft after that, took stock on what they had. If they were leaving -

He looked up at Peter. "Want to make a last drop?"

Potentially ill-advised, but they didn't know how long they'd be gone and they still had three spots if they had to return.

"I'm sorry, the last what?" No, it didn't occur to Mohinder that Matt and Peter had been doing more than just getting by here...they'd been trying to help everyone else out too.

Peter, ignoring the scientist, nodded to Matt instead. "I'll do it. If we're leaving and they only have a few more days here, I'll leave notes too. We'll clear out the stores and... Stay with them, Matt." Just in case they were followed. A man and a little girl would be like blood in the water to sharks. Especially ones so clean. They could well have led others to them but Matt could handle it well enough. Over the last few weeks, Peter had seen amazing things come out of Matt he'd never have expected at all.

From anyone.

He had a really tremendous grasp on his ability. Tremendous.

Pater clasped Matt on the wrist like old knights might have and disappeared with the newly found water and a pallet of toilet paper. It was only then, eyes wide, that Mohinder understood.

Matt was closed off emotionally to keep going but he hadn't changed. He was still a good man. A beautifully kind-hearted man in every small sense of the word, truly. Mohinder stood and faced Matt when Peter was gone, Molly looking up at the two of them.

She ended up breaking the silence. "Can I be the flower girl?"

And that's when the two of them would see Matt smile for the first time in a month. It was a tired smile, frayed around the edges, but he crouched down and balanced on the balls of his feet to touch Molly's face. He still had some blood on his hands, dried and cracked up in places, but it didn't leave any traces on Molly's skin.

There was some symbolism in that, probably. If you were into that kind of thing.

"Yeah, sweetheart. Who else?"

Marriage was far off the table as far as discussion went. They couldn't even be married in New York even if they wanted to. But it was such an innocent yet knowing question and that's what Matt meant with his answer, in a sense.

Who else, really?

He pulled her gently towards him and kissed her hair. Then he stood and picked up the last water bottle, half full and lukewarm.

"Okay, c'mon. We should go."

It wasn't entirely dark out yet but Matt didn't want either of them there when darkness really fell.

Keeping his thoughts to himself suddenly much more difficult than before, Mohinder just pressed his lips together at Matt and Molly's exchange and keeps the rest silent. Such things never occured to him. Being engaged once had been enough for a tear and-- All right, he told himself quietly. Don't make much of it.

There was little time to do anything at the moment though. Teleporting was imprecise and Peter would simply have to follow them, it seemed. Another few hours' walk back to the car didn't seem quite as interesting as it might seem and passing the guards wasn't something Mohinder was going to relish.

They could shoot them. Now, he'd left instructions to allow them to return but there were boys at New York's new gate. Boys that didn't understand how these things happened or who didn't know, rightly, when to be afraid and when to let honour take over.

Mohinder didn't think too much about this little journey other than getting to Matt. The rest...he'd hoped someone else had an exit strategy for.

Molly walked between them, Matt ahead, listening, Mohinder behind. He did his best to keep watch but he was a professor, an academic. Those professions did not lend well to being a good scout, incidentally. He never heard the man behind him. He never even called out when he was grabbed.

His thoughts, though? Those could not be silenced.

Oh, the guy was good. Good because Matt hadn't quite noticed him either - he must have been focused on his silence and his task something fierce. But the mental cry of alarm was loud enough to Matt who immediately called to Molly's mind to go hide, and she trusted him enough to duck away immediately, eyes wide as she found a vantage point and tried to see what had happened. She was scared.

Matt had whirled around immediately, reflexes kicking in quickly, honed by the month in the ghost town. He had his gun pointed to the man and ignored Mohinder's face completely for the time being as he took a step forwards, looking utterly dangerous. Jaw set. Eyes almost black.

He recognised this man. One of Lord Crazy's crew, a bit older, graying at the temples. He had a knife held to Mohinder's throat.

"Are you alone?"

Matt snapped it, already reaching for his mind. The man didn't say anything, so Matt ripped into his head. It was fast and probably painful judging by the way the man twitched, but then he slowly moved his hand away from Mohinder's neck, dropping the knife on the floor, and even more slowly took a step back.

Matt slammed him into the nearest wall. He had his arm pressed up beneath the guy's chin, cutting off his air supply, muzzle of the gun pressed firmly against his forehead.

That got his attention and he opened his mouth to say something but Matt was beyond listening at that point and after ensuring the man wouldn't go anywhere, he lifted his arm from where it was held over his neck to put his palm against his forehead. Things were silent after that.

At least until his body dropped to the ground, eyes rolled back into his sockets and mouth slightly open, and Matt stepped away from him in disgust.

He stepped over the knife which had a thin edge of blood on it. He'd shifted focus already, taking the few steps he needed to get to Mohinder and reached out to him, voice a bit breathless and raw when he asked, "You okay?"

Scared. That's just how Mohinder looked when Matt came to him, blood fresh on his throat and hair torn, a bruise forming on an already dark jawline. Mohinder's eyes didn't lift towards Matt but towards the man that had been still quivering when Matt dropped him, just his foot twitching back and forth until that too was stopped. Mohinder swallowed, the action sending one small rivet of blood to his collar. He needed to stop wearing such pale shirts. They dirtied so quickly.

Mohinder shook when Matt touched him, his own hand lifting to set on the pale, bearded cheek of the man in front of him. You killed him. Just like that. No weapon, just thoughts. How was that possible? An overload of senses? A command to die? Could a man be commanded like that?

So many questions. So many.

Mohinder's mind rattled them off like the alphabet, a steam of consciousness for things he could never ask. Scared, horrified, proud, relieved, curious-- His feelings were impossible to sort out as he wrapped his arms around Matt's neck.

He'd seen so much death...why did this one bother him so much? Why did it make something stir in his belly? Had Molly not been watching, Mohinder might have reached for Matt's belt and insisted to be had, right there on the hood of a damaged and beaten in car.

"Molly--!"

Matt looked back to the unconscious man. No, he hadn't killed him. He'd-- punched him, had tore something up in his head, but he hadn't killed him. Or if he had, he hadn't meant to. Either way, he wasn't cut up for regret right then and didn't actually deny what Mohinder was thinking when he put his hands to his sides. He still had his gun in his right and Mohinder would feel that when he was pushed back, but only to create enough distance to let Matt look at the cut on his throat.

It looked like it'd sting but not like it'd kill him. Having concluded that much Matt reached up with his free hand to touch Mohinder's face in a mirror image of his own gesture, but there was something fiercely possessive in Matt's eyes that gave extra weight to the touch.

Matt thought of Molly almost at the same time Mohinder did and he turned to where he heard her thoughts but couldn't see her.

"Molly, sweetheart", he said with the same raw edge to his voice. He didn't say more than that. She didn't need more to slowly come out from behind the same car Mohinder had been thinking about.

"What did you do?" she asked, uncertainly, and something passed over Matt's face.

"He's not going to hurt us anymore."

Anymore, because he'd seen all the things the man had been thinking and as far as Matt was concerned right then such thoughts were just as bad as actions. He'd been alone and that was something, but he also had friends nearby that just might find him, and if they did ...

"Come on. We got to keep moving."

A gurgle came from the dead man and Mohinder absolutely bleeted like a goat while Matt was examining the wound on his throat. Just a nick, it was already stopping bleeding. He'd just have to take a round of antibiotics. Who knew what else was on that knife? Likely, nothing good. It'd been somewhat dull too, the gash across his neck was throbbing already.

Though the man wsn't as dead as previously thought, what sort of man might be left in that body, blood trickling out of his nose? Mohinder's curiosity might have once prompted him to stay, his desire to help the man moot at this point since he was not a medical doctor. Now, he simply wanted to flee.

Taking Molly by the hand firmly, Mohinder pressed his lips together and started back towards the bridge, no longer really caring to be left in the back or to walk in the centre of the road. Weaving around cars offered little by way of cover and too much for those that might do them harm.

"The car's about half a mile from here," Mohinder said, stupidly believing it might still be. Or that it might be unguarded. One man jumping him had been terrifying. Five around the black SUV from Pinehearst was worse.

Mohinder didn't mean to cower, but he did pull Molly behind Matt after ducking back around the corner. He wasn't sure if they'd been seen or not, but the other ways were blocked. Had Matt not been with him, had he not been attacked, Mohinder might have approached these people with hands raised and offered them water. The idiot was actually thinking that might still be a good tactic.

Otherwise, how could they leave the city when every other road was blocked?

Matt shook his head, listening to both of their thoughts and trying to reach for the mixed group of people ahead. He recognised these ones, too. There was a teenager there who he knew didn't want to hurt anyone but who was scared to leave the group, but with them was also the ice-cold thoughts of the woman who was keeping watch.

He wouldn't kill them. He hadn't yet killed anyone, actually; with the increasing control of his ability he could defend himself regardless.

"I'll get this", he whispered to the two of them. "Stay here."

And then without really waiting for an answer he stood, mentally projecting what Peter had called a shield at some point. Making them think he wasn't there. It was useful but straining, but with five of them there he couldn't exactly manipulate one or two of them and hope the others would stand idly by.

It probably looked alarming to Mohinder and Molly when he walked straight up to the group of people investigating the car ... but they didn't pay him any attention. And once he stood in the center of the group he tried to expand the command.

There wasn't a car there. They hadn't found anything. They should just leave. There wasn't anything there at all. There absolutely weren't two people behind that building, either.

There was a moment of ... nothing. Then they started moving away and Matt leaned heavily against the side of the car, having to keep them on a mental leash until he couldn't hear them think anymore. He kept his eyes closed and felt the familiar lightheadedness coming on. Probably another nose bleed, too.

Well, whatever. If they got past the bridge (if the car still worked, if the soldiers recognised Mohinder, if Peter came back, if -) he wouldn't have to worry about wearing out his own mind out the way he constantly was in this godforsaken city.

So long as Molly and Mohinder or something else hadn't alerted the group as they left, they should be fine.

Mohinder waited. Rushing to Matt's side at the forefront of his mind, he knew it might just cause the hard work his detective had put in to go to waste. He waited, instead, with Molly clutching his hand, the girl staring intently at the things he father could do. It was nothing like the little contained ice storms her real dad use to show off with, or how he could make ice cream in her bowl from a little bit of milk and sugar. What Matt was doing was protecting her. Protecting them both. And she knew it.

Eventually, when Matt's body sagged more fully against the car, Mohinder had Molly wait where they had been crouching and rushed as quietly as he could to the other's side. The blood dripping from his nose was wiped at with his sleeve and Mohinder's eyes sparkled with awe, with wonder, with thanks, with love.

No where was the fear that Janice had had from time to time, that even Peter looked at him with. Mohinder was wholly trusting, wholly willing to believe in the goodness of the man behind the power.

When Matt didn't directly focus on him, the smile turned to a somewhat determined frown. "Get in the back seat. Lay down," he commanded with word, not thought. "No more. I'll get us the rest of the way."

Matt breathed out slowly and nodded, still with both hands behind him on the car to brace himself. He knew it'd pass eventually - he'd spent a lot of time pushing his personal limits, but he needed recuperative periods much like anyone else. The lack of food and water wasn't helping either lately.

He dipped his forehead briefly to Mohinder's shoulder just ... because. Because he'd missed him, because he'd looked at him like that, because he was tired and because Mohinder for the last few months had been a good place to rest.

Well, not so much the last month. But that made it all the more important now.

It wasn't a long moment though and when Mohinder went to get Molly Matt opened the car door. They'd find him with an arm thrown over his eyes in the familiar pose they would've seen many times before whenever he was tired, when they came back.

"I think the car's fine", he murmured as they got in. Cause yeah, he'd checked briefly even if he could very well be wrong. Any supplies they'd had in the car would be gone, though. "How far's Pinehearst?"

Mohinder knew that Molly was capable of getting her own seatbelt. She was four months away from her birthday and she was old enough to handle little things but he needed the reassurance in himself. He needed to be a caregiver right now when he felt as if he'd been neglecting his family for the last month. Yes, it had been a necessary evil, working on the inoculation was important for humanity so that the future Peter once spoke about seeing would never happen to them. That didn't mean he didn't like for the month before when he'd been a sort of stay at home dad, trying to give the two most important people in his life all of his time and energy.

Teaching at NYU was no longer an option. Having a normal life was nothing he could ever hope for.

And yet, he still held onto the memories at the beach the day the world went to hell. Happiness wasn't a thing of the past. They'd have it again, so long as they were together.

Mohinder clicked his own seatbelt into place and the car started easily...noisily. He didn't waste time heading in a beeline back to the bridge. He could only hope that the big white PINEHEARST and the half-helix logo would get the military to ask first rather than shoot. "It's ten minutes over the bridge. We're just a few blocks away."

Molly was silent on the drive. Mohinder himself quieted down. It wasn't until men and women in military hazmat suits flagged them to stop that Mohinder actually allowed himself to breathe. He pressed his badge to the window and then rolled it down.

"You let me through four hours ago," he said, looking far worse than he'd had going in. "As expected, the virus has left the air. I didn't get as far as central park, but it's clear that the virus has dissipated." He was lying. He'd never gone in there to test air quality. These young soldiers, however, questioned less than they should have.

It took some phone calls but eventually, they were let through. Mohinder tried not to think about the mess Fort Lee was in, however. Just in case Matt was paying attention.

Matt wasn't paying attention, not really, not right then. He was open to impressions and thoughts because he was too much on edge not to be, but he was lying low for the most part. Eyes closed, waiting for the lightheadedness to pass. That didn't mean that he didn't hear some of the chaos surrounding them, though. But after everything he'd seen and heard he wasn't actually surrpised - he just kept an ear out to anything particularly alarming.

Molly was paying more attention, keeping close and careful watch on the road from her position in the front seat. "Mohinder, look", she said quietly after a while, pointing ahead and to the right. There was a road block in the distance, police and paramedics both on the scene and sirens wailing, but no way to tell what had happened.

It wasn't their destination, thankfully, but it spoke of the tension that still ran high everywhere.

About halfway through the ride Matt sat up and leaned to look out the windshield as well, a hand to the back of each of their seats. He'd only been to New Jersey a few times but it was like the very colors were dulled down and muted from what he remembered and knew. The world would never be the same.

Mohinder didn't, couldn't think that way. The world would heal itself, this country and this city...these people would sort it out. Soon. Or if not soon, eventually. He just couldn't. Mohinder slowed the car down and faced one more blockade before arriving at one of the nicer, utterly fenced off campuses Matt might have seen. Pinehearst was still beautiful, still vibrant. Somehow, they managed to keep the grass green, the bushes and trees trimmed. It was as if the mess outside hadn't made it in. For a long time, Mohinder sat in the borrowed SUV once they'd pulled into the underground parking lot until one of his interns, a cute woman who was still a little too young to really have grown into her beauty named Tabitha, all of nineteen, came up to the car to bang on the window.

"Doctor Suresh! We got the results an hour ago. We're greenlit for manufacture!" Mohinder couldn't really share her enthusiasm and once she got a good look at him, she gasped. "Was New York--"

"Lost," Mohinder said bluntly. "I'll be to the lab in a few hours. I have to get my daughter settled." Tabitha nodded and looked somewhat unabashedly at the man in the back seat.

"Who's--"

"Matt Parkman. This is Tabitha Green. She's a technopath," he explained.

Tabitha grinned, obviously fine with being 'outted.'

"Well, sorta. I can link into the internet and some phones but nothing really major. I'm more like a walking Google."

Matt gave her a look - he was surprised. Not that she had an ability but that it was known and talked about, by the way she looked when Mohinder pointed it out. Was she from Pinehearst? What did they know, what was their stance?

"Sounds practical", he said after a moment, but didn't admit to his own power or offer more than that. She didn't seem very pertrubed though and instead turned to Mohinder to say that she'd set up his things for him so that it'd be ready when he got back.

Matt looked at her as she left. It'd be a long time before he would let go of his instinctual distrust of anyone new. When she was out of earshot he turned towards Mohinder, wasting no time in asking.

"Does she work for them? What do they know about us?"

... did they know about Molly?

"She works for me technically," Mohinder said, feeling the edge to Matt's voice. Mohinder didn't want to get into an argument. "She told me in Atlanta, she'd read my father's book and... Matt, this virus is named after my sister. We had to look at all the strains, including the one that Molly had. Most of the people that have been on my team since the beginning are...like you."

His smile was awkward in the rear view mirror.

"They don't know anything about you. Or Molly. Just that she's my daughter." He'd learned, all right? He'd learned to say nothing to know one. "But about me? Unfortunately, that I had to give them."

Molly undid her seat belt and climbed into the backseat with Matt, laying her head on his shoulder.

"And I haven't told anyone either."

Matt mellowed out when Molly curled up with him and he wrapped his arm around her and leaned his chin on the top of her head.

"Yeah", he said, shooting Mohinder a look even as he hugged his daughter closer. It read slightly apologetic, but that wariness in his eyes still hadn't gone away. The ingrained distance that he still needed. "I just worry."

Of course he did. About both of them. They stayed like that for a moment in quiet companionship before they got out of the car, Matt a little slower than he'd like, especially when his left arm reminded him that he'd gotten hurt. He grimaced, rolled his shoulder, but kept his other hand linked with Molly's when they followed Mohinder along.

This was Mohinder's turf and Matt was glad to shut off a bit, to not have to lead. And he still kept all kinds of vigilance and was altogether tense and a little twitchy whenever someone unexpected appeared or something happened, but he trusted Mohinder now to lead the way and to handle most of it.

He was surprised by how clean everything seemed, how organised. It was one hell of a shock compared to New York - the order, the clipboards, the civil conversation.

The fact that the building was standing was another plus.

Getting Molly to bed became a priority after she had a fruit cup and Matt a peanut butter sandwich with milk. It was still fairly early but they all needed to lay down and Mohinder was absolutely on a paternal sort of kick. The small two room suite that Mohinder had been given was plain and unadorned with anything but Molly's drawings. The cups and plates were thick and white, the cutlery plastic, and the throw pillows on the sofa where Matt reclined rough and unbroken in.

Mohinder missed his apartment. He missed the lived in space he and Matt and their girl had made at home. At this rate, he'd never see it again. Mohinder settled himself on the edge of the coffee table by Matt's head and set his hand on the larger man's chest before he decided to be a little more bold than usual.

Matt wouldn't mind the shift onto his lap would he? Mohinder was a slight man. He certainly didn't weight enough to hurt the other man. A month apart had been difficult for them both and closeness to his detective, now that Molly had been looked after, was honestly all that the Indian wanted.

They were bloody. Matt didn't smell the best. But he was here. His fingers curled through hair longer than he last remembered touching.

"We don't get separated again. Not any more."

Matt didn't mind at all. While he didn't feel safe (a feeling that had been slowly gorund down to very little over the past month) he did feel more relaxed now. And tired in a way he could allow himself to be for once. No need to keep watch, stand guard, count the hours. He could just sink into the relative softness of the sofa and listen to Molly and Mohinder and just through their presence feel how the hollowness that had started settling somewhere in his chest was filled with something else.

So when Mohinder joined him and climbed on top of him, Matt locked eyes with him and wrapped an arm around his waist, keeping him close, his other hand coming up to touch his face.

There were still small flecks of blood visible on the dark skin if you looked hard enough. Matt looked. He wanted to look, needed to look and really commit this face to memory, even now perfect in some ways because of the marks of distress.

"Good", he said, voice hoarse, and kissed him. Not particularly hard and nowhere near as hurried as back in the loft but close and deep and drawn out.

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