Is this a dream? If it is, please don't wake me from this high

[ I think these two had potential. Well, as much potential as Elle could have with anyone. Peter's history isn't much better. It's a step up from his last relationship though, in my opinion ... ;x Sorry Simone, but both the boys you were juggling were too good for you. Anyway, I really wanted to write something for them that had a realistic, yet sorta romantic feel to it. Obviously I cut it off before things got too hot and heavy because I don't write smut. The make-out session felt kind of rushed, but by the time I got that far along, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to write another several paragraphs just for them to decide they want to do it. Elle's impulsive, and Peter hasn't gotten laid in a long time. So tada! There you have it. Just in time for Valentine's Day, here you go! Although I might attempt to do some other little short writings/something-or-others in honor of some of the Heroes couples I liked(ed).

Also, this takes place after the season two finale, but instead of future Peter hanging around and stuffing present day Peter into anyone else's body, he just returned to his own time. ]

Matt was still searching for Nathan's shooter, but Peter was doubtful that he would be able to find the person who did this. Whoever it was had to be long gone by now. Peter partially blamed himself because he'd almost caught up with the gunman, but the guy had gotten away. It's like he'd just disappeared into thin air. Regardless of whose fault it was, he hadn't been able to leave his brother's side. The doctors had officially declared Nathan dead, but somehow he'd miraculously survived. How was that even possible?

As for Nathan's condition, he slipped in and out of consciousness, waking up just long enough to mutter a few incoherent sentences, then fall back asleep. But he was was talking. That was good, right? Even though he wasn't making a whole lot of sense ...

During one of his more lucid moments, Nathan commented on Peter's rough appearance and suggested he go home and get some sleep. His logic was he wasn't going anywhere. Peter didn't like the idea and he seriously doubted he looked worse than his bed-ridden brother ( which was what had been implied ), but he played along to appease the other. Maybe he'd dip out and grab a decent cup of coffee, then come back. That had been the plan before he unexpectedly ran into Elle in the hallway. What was she doing here? To say he was surprised was an understatement. Shocked was more like it.

To make a long story short, she wanted to break away from the Company. She didn't go into details about why, but Peter got the distinct impression that something had happened to trigger this sudden urge to escape her previous life. But that still didn't explain why was she here. Elle kept talking, and eventually the pieces started to somewhat fall into place. She didn't have any friends, so basically he'd been her last resort. Elle was willing to forget about how he'd used her as a 'get-out-of-jail-free card' so he could go gallivanting around with Adam Monroe if he let her tag along with him. Sounded like a fair deal to him, and he couldn't entirely argue with her. He had used her, even though he thought he'd been doing it for a good cause. Now he felt slightly guilty about that for multiple reasons, one of them being aside from the sadistic lightening thing, she wasn't all that bad.

Still, this wasn't really a good time, and he tried to tell her that, but Elle either really didn't get it or was pretending she didn't understand so she could get her way.

To avoid talking in circles all day, Peter invited her to come with him to get a cup of joe, but she wanted to try some fruity cocktail she'd heard about somewhere. Since he wanted to get back as soon as he could, he agreed to take her wherever she wanted go, but she could only pick one place. That was his sole condition, which she didn't seem to have a problem with. It still seemed odd, them hanging out, but Elle didn't act at all bothered by it, and he was too tired to put up a fight about something that didn't matter all that much to him. A beer or two would work just as well as a dose of caffeine.

Peter's problem was that hanging out in bars wasn't really his thing. It made him uncomfortable. In a way, she made him uncomfortable. He didn't know from one minute to the next what Elle was going to do, but he patiently sat there and listened to her rattle off a whole bunch of random facts for nearly an hour before he excused himself to answer an incoming call. It was Claire. She wanted to know how Nathan was doing. He gave her an update, then assured her that his brother was in the clear now and was doing much better, so there was no reason to worry. Despite his assurance, Claire announced she was going to come see Nathan anyway and that she'd see them both soon.

After their conversation ended, Peter made a quick call to Matt to see if he'd found out anything new about the assassination attempt, but there was still nothing but dead-ends. Then he called his mom who was at the hospital with Nathan. He wanted to check in and make sure nothing had gone wrong in the short amount of time he'd been gone. So far, so good, which meant his brother was still hanging in there.

Even though everything sounded okay at the moment, he wanted to be there for his family. In order to do that, he'd have to ditch Elle. But she'd be alright; she was busy enjoying the sights. She probably wouldn't even notice he was gone. She struck him as the type that could latch on to just about anyone, and she could definitely take care of herself. Besides, nothing special about him. He was just a familiar face. She could make new friends. Though if she felt abandoned, she was likely to get upset, and if/when that happened, she knew where to find him. He really didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the hospital ( or anywhere for that matter ).

His internal debate got interrupted when he noticed that it had started getting dark, but it was too early for the sun to be going down. When he looked up, he saw the eclipse, which explained the sudden darkness.

That was strange.

A crease formed across Peter's brow as he continued to try and figure out what the right thing to do in this situation was. That's when he heard a woman's voice coming from the alley behind the bar, and she sounded distressed. A few steps in that direction, and he recognized the voice. It belonged to Elle. He quickly made his way around to the back to see what was going on, and when he witnessed the altercation, he automatically shifted into protective mode. "Hey, leave her alone!"

The guy who'd had Elle backed against the wall spun around to glare at Peter. "Stay out of this," he barked. "This doesn't concern you."

Peter had been willing to make this as easy as possible, but what happened next escalated things.

When the man roughly grabbed Elle's arm, she tried desperately to pull it away from the painfully tight grip, but she couldn't get loose. That's when she started to panic. Why weren't her powers working? Right now she was extremely vulnerable, and it terrified her. She wasn't used to feeling this way. She rarely had to be scared because of what she could do to anyone that crossed her, and now, when she needed to the most, she couldn't protect herself. Sure, she probably could've avoided this situation altogether if she'd 'played it smart,' but in a lot of ways she was still very naive. Fortunately Peter was there to rescue her. Otherwise who knew what would've happened?

"Let go! You're hurting me." She was freed from the man's merciless grasp when Peter physically intervened and heroically positioned himself between her and her attacker. A warning was issued, and after a tense stand-off, her white knight triumphed. Luckily the other guy didn't seem to want to fight.

"Thank you ..."

It took a minute for Peter to calm down, but all traces of anger faded and were replaced with concern when he turned to look at Elle. She was trembling, and he thought he saw tears in her eyes. She was visibly shaken, and he couldn't say he blamed her. "You're welcome."

Peter instantly started surveying for damage, and once he did, it didn't take him long to notice the way she kept rubbing her wrist. "You okay?" Elle gave a small nod in response to his question.

Eye contact was made briefly before he reached for her hand. He just wanted to make sure everything was alright. But when she flinched, he stopped for a second, then proceeded forward more slowly so he didn't startle her again.

The corners of his mouth dipped down into a heavy frown when he concluded her wrist was sprained. How dare that guy hurt her ... There was just one thing he didn't understand. "Why didn't you use your powers to defend yourself?"

Didn't he think she would've if she could've? "Because my powers are gone."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Peter handed Elle a bag of ice. "Here, put this on your wrist." Once she took it from him, he wandered over to the window and glanced out at the darkened sky.

For someone who was supposedly so tough, Elle was really a big baby when it came to pain, so when she pressed the ice against the sore spot she was supposed to be tending to, she winced. Nothing like coming across as a weakling in front of someone who could become a friend or foe. But what was even more disturbing was being unable to use her ability. Why had she picked now to become miss independent? Well, she had her reasons, but it looked like she was going to pay for her poor judgement in more ways than one. "What do you think's happening to us?" If Peter was just going to stand there all silent like, she'd say something. She didn't like the quiet.

"I don't know." Whatever the problem was, it was affecting them both. For some reason Peter suspected it had something to do with the eclipse. It couldn't be coincidence that the two had occurred simultaneously. At least it wasn't very likely. There had to be some explanation, and that was the best he could come up with. It also helped reassure him because eventually the sun would re-emerge, and hopefully then their powers would come back. It's how he was keeping so calm through all this. Now he just had to convince Elle that this wasn't as scary or as permanent as it seemed. "But we'll figure it out."

"You sound so sure." ... As if he actually had a clue about what was going on.

"I am." Peter didn't like being doubted, so he got a little defensive. Maybe he wasn't one hundred percent positive, but there was no way anyone could know with absolute certainty what was happening. All the same, he wished Nathan was here so he could reassure them both that everything was going to be fine. No matter what kind of crap he pulled ( and he'd practically done it all ), his brother could always make him feel better about a frightening situation. Now he was having to step up and be the brave one, and it wasn't as easy as it looked.

When he turned around, he noticed the skepticism still etched on Elle's face. Though instead of getting offended, Peter's expression softened as he crossed the room and took a seat beside her on the sofa. "Hey, trust me. We're going to be okay."

"You want to hear something funny?" The corners of her mouth tugged up into a tiny smile, although it was mostly just for show. It was important to keep her game face on, 'specially since he was going to be all macho about this. "I do." How could she not believe him when he said something like that with such conviction? Sheesh. Paging Mr. Perfect ...

Peter was glad. It's not like they'd gotten off to a great start. Honestly, his first impression of her was that she was extremely clingy and a little crazy. But right now she seemed completely sane, so he was beginning to wonder how much of what he'd seen before was an act. She was a lot different out here in the real world, unless it was the fear sobering her up. He wasn't totally okay with the whole powerless thing either. Without his ability, he went back to being the black sheep of the family. He lost his purpose. For that reason, he had to believe that this was just temporary, and she should do the same.

"You came here for my help. Why me?" His curiosity had gotten the best of him. It's not like they'd parted on friendly terms.

Elle fidgeted around some, mainly to stall. Did he have to look at her like that? It was nearly impossible to say no to anything he asked with those puppy dog eyes of his staring at her. It still didn't make it any easier for her to give him an answer. Sharing her feelings was hard. It wasn't something the Company encouraged, so surprise, surprise, she sucked at it. Thing is she wasn't a very good agent either, so basically she sucked at life any which way you looked at it. Pathetic much? Nope. Pathetic was what she was about to say. "Because I don't have anyone else." She caught her bottom lip starting to quiver, so she stubbornly stiffened her jaw and tilted her head away from him to finish. "You said you wanted to get to know me. I know it was just an act, but I didn't know where else to go." Despite her best efforts, she'd been unable to hide that tiny little crack in her voice that'd reared its ugly head towards the end of her sentence.

"It wasn't just an act," Peter assured her. Maybe it had been right before he'd run off, but in the beginning he hadn't had any tricks up his sleeve. He'd just been trying to make conversation. She seemed interested in him, so he'd tried to get to know her a little bit. There hadn't been any ulterior motives at that point.

Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she peered up at him, trying desperately to decide whether he was playing her now, or whether he really meant it. If there was any insincerity, she wasn't seeing it. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten suckered in by him. Either way, there wasn't anything for him to gain by lying to her now, so she shrugged it off as unimportant. As far as she was concerned, she had him right where she wanted him. "I don't want to go back," Elle stated soundly. Not that she thought he'd try and talk her into returning to her former prison, but she wanted to make her intentions as clear as possible. She was finally getting to what precisely it was she wanted from Peter. "I was wondering if you could teach me how to live like this."

"Like what?" He asked curiously.

"Being different." Well, usually she wasn't like everyone else. Right now was kind of an exception ... "You've done it. You blend right in." Walking down the street, no one could tell that Peter was special. Elle wanted that. She wanted a normal life, or at least a chance to see what all was out there. Who knows? Maybe she'd become even more miserable and have to go crawling back to the only family she'd ever known, but if she could find someone to teach her how to become a part of the crowd, maybe she wouldn't have to.

"I don't know if using me as a role model is such a good idea." He'd made some pretty bad decisions lately without even meaning to. So taking tips from someone who could possibly be as screwed up as she was might not be the right solution.

"Please?" All traces of toughness vanished as Elle resorted to begging him to help her.

It wasn't that Peter didn't want to. He just wasn't sure how successful he'd be at it, but she looked so lost sitting there, he couldn't turn her away. "Okay." Though since he was going to be taking her in for awhile, he felt he was entitled to ask one more question. "What are you running from?" There had to be a reason she was so eager to do this now.

"My father," Elle replied bitterly. Let's just say she'd found some not-so-nice pieces of information about what he'd put her through in the past, and she didn't think she could find it in herself to care about pleasing him anymore, not even for all the supposed 'benefits' the life he'd set aside for her had to offer.

Peter nodded. From what little he knew about Bob, the guy didn't seem like a very nurturing person, so he wasn't at all surprised by Elle's response. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what all had been done to her to make her react so strongly. Regardless of the details, his answer remained the same. "I'll protect you," he promised.

Elle's smile broadened as she leaned forward and flung her arms around Peter to express her gratitude. She gave him a quick squeeze before drawing back and scrunching up her face. "Ow." Her bottom lip slid out into a pout. Maybe she should've been a little less enthusiastic with the hugging - though if she had, Peter wouldn't have gently taken a hold of her hand to see if her injured wrist was doing any better. Apparently the swelling had gone down, so that was good. It still hurt like the dickens though, but there probably wasn't a way around that.

"You know, no one's ever done anything like this for me before ..." Elle wasn't stupid. Back at the bar, she'd thought Peter had left. But since his brother was in the hospital, he wouldn't have gone far, so she hadn't been all that worried. Then she'd managed to get herself into trouble by hanging with a guy who'd seemed really nice inside. Guess you couldn't always judge a book by its cover. That's when Peter had come back for her, and now he was nursing her back to health and volunteering his assistance for as long as it was needed. Elle had rarely seen this much kindness in any individual. So rarely, in fact, that she wasn't sure she'd ever met anyone like him. With all these thoughts spinning through her head and them sitting so close, it was hard not to think back to that kiss: that one magical kiss that she'd enjoyed ... a lot. She wondered if now that things were different, maybe he'd like it too.

With both her hands now free ( the bag of ice had been set aside since it'd already served its purpose ), Elle slowly snaked one around to the nape of Peter's neck and begun running her fingers lightly through his hair. "How much of it wasn't an act?" She inquired with a coy head tilt.

Her appreciation alone had been enough for him to feel good about his decision, but surely this couldn't be the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. Peter would've liked to believe that most people would've done the same if they had been in his shoes, but obviously that wasn't true. All Elle had been exposed to was the evils of the world, and that realization affected him far more than it should've.

The question caught him a little off-guard, but the implications behind it came in loud and clear. He wasn't mister popularity or anything, and usually if/when a girl liked him, he was one of the last ones to figure it out, but Elle wasn't exactly subtle. He couldn't really say he minded ...

Whether it was because he'd been so upset about the shooting, or simply because he'd seen something in Elle that most people didn't that'd attracted him to her wasn't clear. But whatever the reason was, he didn't try and put any distance between them to cool off the moment. In fact, he did the opposite. His hands found their way to the small of her back as he pulled her a little closer. Seconds later, their lips met. Both of them were seeking something: looking to fulfill a part of their lives that was missing, and right now they were finding that in each other's arms. Clothes were stripped away, leaving nothing but bare skin and the vulnerable souls that rested just beneath it as they allowed passion to temporarily take the reigns of their chaotic, messy lives and show them a whole new world.