Two Of A Kind

Participants:

niki_icon.gif peter2_icon.gif

Scene Title Two of a Kind
Synopsis Niki and Peter talk over coffee.
Date October 9, 2008

Primatech Research: Cafeteria


Still acclimating. She's gotten her medical clearance from Odessa, and she's gotten to bring in some clothing from home due to a trip with Claudine. Now she just needs to find out where she's going to be living…and actually start this whole job thing. Niki's in a women's suit, walking down the halls, badge on, trying not to feel odd about working for the place that was torturing her not that long ago.

"…look, we just have to take this up with him as gently as possible. Buckley's been under a lot of stress since Agent Bishop was taken, and the last thing we need is to upset him further." Peter's voice is heard before he's seen, rounding the corner from down by the elevators, hands moving animatedly as he discussed with a dapper-dressed and blonde gentlemen that Niki would recognize as Agent Woods, Peter's partner.

"Look, Pete, I'm just not keen on the idea of failin' t'give Buckley a full update is all. If we lost Adam's bloody trail, then we need to let 'em know, right." The Brit quirks his head to the side, both hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks as he walks, focused more on his partner than where he's walking.

Peter shoots a frustrated stare over to Woods, shaking his head as he does. "What good will that do? All it's going to do is piss Buckley off more than he already is. His personal agenda with Agent Bishop is making him — " Finally catching sight of Niki, Peter cuts himself off, pausing in the middle of the hall while woods takes a few more steps, then slows to a halt, eyeing Niki suspiciously.

"Well, if it ain't Wonda' Woman 'erself." His head cocks to the side, and he gives Peter a silent stare. "We'll continue this lil' line o'conversation later, Petrelli." He glances at Niki, feigning a smile before stalking back down the hall towards the elevators.

"Wait, Woods, where — " Peter hisses out a sigh, shoulders slouching as he turns from his irritable partner to Niki, managing a strained smile. "Good afternoon Nik — Er, Agent Sanders."

Niki is standing there, and she looks over, seeing the other two. She looks at Woods as he departs, and then looks back. "Niki's fine." she offers. "Is Peter? I know we don't really know each other well…but I know some about you."

Laughing to himself, Peter shakes his head and nods slowly, "Peter's fine. I just didn't want to assume, you know?" He looks over his shoulder again, watching Woods disappear around the corner to the elevators, then looks back to Niki. "You look a lot better now that you're in something other than those scrubs they make patients wear." Peter's lips crack into a smile as he walks closer to Niki, tucking his hands into his pockets as he does. "How're you holding up?"

Niki smiles a little. "I'm better. Not a hundred percent, but I'm better. I still don't really know my way around here; is there someplace we can get some coffee and sit down?"

Cracking a smile, Peter nods slowly and motions back the way Niki had been coming from, "There's a caffeteria on this floor, not the best food in the world, but it'll make due in a pinch." He takes a few steps past Niki, turning to look back at her with that crooked smile, "Come on, I'll get you a coffee and we can do a little catching up. I think we could both use a cup."

Niki nods. "It'll do." She walks on at his side. "So how did you end up working here? I mean, not to imply anything, but based on what I heard in the media…I really wouldn't have figured it."

"Yeah, Yeah I know…" Peter shakes his head and laughs, "Crazy suicidal brother of a Senatorial candidate hardly seems like Company material, right?" On the way down the hall, Peter keeps the conversation and his tone light, not a sign of regret or concern in his voice. "I had a pretty bad accident, from what the doctors tell me." He motions to the scar across his face, "I guess I discovered I was special, you know, like you?" He smiles hesitantly, "Right around the time I took that dive off of the building. Doctor Knutson told me I tried being some kind've vigilante or something like that, but it didn't really work out on my own. I was involved in an accident recently, the one that gave me my scar, and I guess that's what sort've put me on this path. I can't remember anything about the last two years, not a bit, and I've been trying to piece things together from newspaper clippings and the like, to not a whole lot of success."

Passing thorugh a series of double doors, Peter leads Niki down another hall, painted halfway up from the floor with a sage green color. "I'm kind've fuzzy on a lot of the details, but I guess the Company knew about my gift, and when I got injured decided to move in and take care of me, try and rehabilitate as best as they could." He stops by another pair of double doors, pushing them open to reveal a large and mostly empty cafeteria lit by fluorescent ceiling lights. "They gave me an offer, like I did for you, and… well… I've always wanted to help people."

The blonde walks on. "I didn't know that you'd been in an accident." Or that he had abilities. "What do you do?" And then she blushes just a bit. "I mean, your ability. I have to admit, I know more about your brother than you." A sheepish smile, as they head down the hallway, and she steps inside the cafeteria with him.

Peter arches one brow at that, looking nervous, then turns to look down at the floor as he walks in, "I do what you do," Peter hint with a grin, heading over to the coffee dispensers, "Well, I do what everyone does. In a way." Taking one of the paper cups from a stack, Peter places it under the plastic spout, pressing down on the top of the pump and begins filling the cup with dark, steaming coffee.

"My personnel file calls it Empathic Mimicry and Doctor Chandra Suresh's book calls it Mosaic. I have the ability to re-sequence my DNA to mimic the abilities of others I've been in contact with, I just have to know what their power is, otherwise I might inadvertently call on it like a reflex. I read your file, and spent some time down at the weight room to get used to the additional strength. You're really something else." Peter smirks, moving over to the creamers, searching for the half-and-half.

Niki blinks. "You… I can't even use my ability reliably. And you can just…borrow it?" She starts to fill up her cup, looking at him in surprise when he talks about his own ability. "When I'm not even there?"

Peter nods slowly, adding an ample amount of sugar to his coffee as he looks side-long over to Niki. "Apparently." He seems a bit surprised by the notion himself, "That's what they had in my case file. I spent a few days with an instructor once I got out of medical care getting myself re-acclimated to my ability, and it just sort've felt like second nature." He tilts his head to the side, watching Niki. "Given that I can use your strength, even when you're not around, I wouldn't be surprised if you could without needing Jessica. You seem like a strong enough person all on your own, you know? Besides, these abilities we have, they're a part of who we are, not just who we think we are."

Niki smiles a little. "That's what everyone keeps telling me. The problem seems to be that I have to be scared or angry to use it, and those are the times that Jessica comes out. Or…came out. We're thinking that she might be locked up now."

Peter nods slowly, affixing a plastic cover to his cup while making a slow arc away from where the coffee is and towards one of the round tables scattered in the caffeteria. "Maybe we could try a training regimen to get you into the idea of utilizing your power without Niki?" He moves over to the nearby table, pulling out a chair for himself, fingers tapping on the back as he pauses in thought. "Might not be a half bad idea, and it'd be a good excuse to get us out of the building for a little while."

The notion looks to trouble Niki just a little, but she nods. "That's what Elle was trying. Before everything…well, you know." She sits across from him. "Have you talked to Nathan lately? How is he?" She's still got a bucket of guilt over that.

Peter's brow furrows, "Actually, uh, no… You know, he's got that whole Presidential Campaign going on, he's a busy guy." Peter's eyes downturn to the table, "You know, after the embarrassment I guess I caused him back during his bid for the Senate, I can understand why he hasn't even so much as called." The Agent deflates some at the topic of his brother, shaking his head slowly. "How um," Peter looks up to Niki, one brow raised, "How do you know Nathan, anyway? Were you a friend of Heidi?" He seems to have forgotten what he heard in Niki's head days ago when he brought her in.

Niki bites her lip. "That…might be a little awkward to explain." ESPECIALLY with Nathan running for office. "I'm not sure you want to know, Peter, honestly." Which of course, is more than a little "don't think of a pink elephant".

Peter furrows his brow, looking at Niki for a moment with an awkward expression, then grimaces slightly and shakes his head, "Nathan," He says in an exasperated mumble, both hands reaching ujp to smooth down the sides of his hair by his temples. "It's probably best to just… leave it at that, you know how it is." Peter looks back to Niki apologetically, "So… I mean, I hope this isn't too forward of me, but…" Peter dithers slightly, pursing his lips. "How'd you end up down here in the first place? With people like Munroe and Huruma? You seem like a good person, I mean… Your file is pretty thin." Peter's brows furrow, "What I was allowed to see of it anyway."

The blonde nods in agreement on the whole "leaving that one lie". "I like to think that I am. But Jessica isn't. She's hurt lots of people." In a quiet voice, she says "She's killed lots of people."

Peter curls his hands around the cup of coffee, staring down at the table as he listens to Niki. "You don't strike me as a killer," He finally looks up, though it's clear he's worried about crossing a line with his conversation. "Has it always been like this? With Jessica?" His expression softens some, "I mean — Er, if this is too person, you know, just give me a dirty look." He manages an awkward laugh, rolling that cup of coffee around between his hands.

She sips her coffee. "No…only from just around the eclipse, a few years back. Or…rather, that was when I became aware of it. Apparently…I've had DID since I was a little girl. Since my sister died."

Peter's head quirks to the side, "Eclipse? Huh." He taps the coffee back and forth in his hand, rubbing one thumb up and down along the sleeve of paper wrapped around the cup to dampen the heat. "So… Do you have anyone back home? Someone who might miss you?" He looks for some commonality, some thread of connection. "It's hard, you know, not having anyone to really turn to here…"

Niki's eyes brighten a little with unfallen tears, and the grief there will probably hit Peter's telepathy like a tsunami. Micah. She blinks several times "No…not any more. And I know what you mean. I…haven't had anyone in a long time. I was…more or less catatonic since the bomb. Jessica was out."

Regret immediately flashes across Peter's face as he catches that thought, and his eyes close tightly, "I'm sorry — I shouldn't be prying like this." His meaning there is something of a double-entendre. "I… I'm sorry." Peter's eyes open slowly, looking back up to Niki with a concerned expression. He grows awkwardly silent, cursing himself inwardly for bringing the conversation in that direction.

She forces the smile. "It's okay. I mean…I have to rebuild my life somehow. That means I have to deal with all of this. At least we have a little in common…we both have amnesia, in a way. You from your accident, me from Jessica."

There's a snorted laugh, and Peter shakes his head, "We're quite the pair, aren't we?" He looks back to Jessica, laughing nervously as he leans back in his chair. "Big bundle of damaged goods put into shiny new packaging." He leans back in the chair further, head tilting up to look at the ceiling with that strange expression. "Makes me wonder if we're even cut out for this kind've work…"

Niki looks amused at that. "You know, I have to say, that working as a secret agent is about the last thing in the world I'd ever have thought I'd be doing. Especially after my last job." She sips her coffee.

Tilting his head to the side, Peter's attention is drawn away from the ceiling at Niki's open-ended statement, leaning back in his chair and balancing on the back legs, "What was your last job, secretary?" He cracks a smile, bringing his coffee up to his lips and finally taking a sip from the drink he's nursed most of the conversation.

Niki can't help it; she laughs out loud. "Try stripper." she sips more of her coffee. "What about you? What were you doing before your accident?"

"Stri — " Peter skids backwards on the two legs of the chair, tumbling head over heels and slamming down against the tile floor, spilling his coffee all over his suit leaving him sprawled out on the floor in a puddle of his hardly touched drink. The chair goes skidding under the table, and the cafeteria staff turns and looks to the sound of the crash. Peter, sheepishly, loos over to Niki as he struggles up onto one elbow, shaking coffee out of his sleeve.

"S'quite the show there Petrelli." Shoes click and clack on the floor, and the smirking swagger of Agent Woods as he comes into the cafeteria clearly indicates that he saw that whole embarrassing show. "You might want to give yourself a good toweling off," He adds with a crooked smile, flashing alook over to Niki for a moment before walking over to Peter's side, standing just on the edge of the puddle of spilled coffee. "You've got t'give your report on the hunt for Munroe."

The blonde woman blinks in surprise at Peter's pratfall, and she stands to move over and help Peter up. "Are you all right?!" And then a look over to Woods. "It sounds like you have someplace to be."

Peter grimaces, sitting up and looking over to Niki with a mithful expression, "I think my pride's in critical condition," He states wryly, "But otherwise I'm okay." His focus then turns up to Agent Woods, and Peter purses his lips, struggling to get up to his feet as he continues to shake coffee off of his arms. "I ah, I think I'll hit the showers, then head down to the Director's office." He glances to the door, then to Woods. "Where've you been?"

Woods watches Peter closely for a moment, then eyes Niki with a smirk. "Nowhere important." He says quietly, picking up the tipped over chair and straightening it before sitting down where Peter was. "I'll keep Agent Sanders entertained. You go on an' enjoy your shower, eh Petrelli?" One blonde brow is quirked, and Woods seems intent on pushing Peter aside.

"R-right…" Glancing over at Niki, then Woods, Peter smiles a little sheepishly, then just shakes his head and starts making his way out of the cafeteria…

…leaving a drizzled trail of coffee in his wake.


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