Work Text:
Spotted Glass
by Lopaka Tanu
Sitting up on the edge of his bed, Peter glanced over at his bedmate. Buck hadn't stirred from the moment he had woken up. Their sexual escapades over the past two weeks left the New Comer exhausted. Peter himself wasn't much better.
It certainly helped him sleep good.
Reaching out, he traced the spots along Buck's back. He wasn't as sensitive as Peter was, that had been a surprise. The spots along his back took the barest hint of a brush and he was hard. It was very disconcerting when he had to take a break during a lesson because Dr. Frankel brushed against him.
He was getting better, though. Much to her amusement, he was practicing his control by rubbing against the wall. Still, he hadn't made very much progress.
Taking his hand away, he left Buck to finish sleeping it off. It was four in the morning, and he had an early shift in the Free Clinic. Since he was picking things up faster than she had anticipated, Dr. Frankel was allowing him to assist. He would eventually be running the clinic's day to day operations under her stewardship.
That made him smile as he grabbed a pair of boxer briefs off the floor. He knew they were Buck's, that's why he put them on. It would annoy him a little, but it was only until he got in the shower. Snorting, Peter glanced over at the man.
Buck shifted in his sleep, a slight snore coming from his pillow.
Sighing, a smile on his face, Peter turned and headed for the shower.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Straining to keep his eyes open, Peter absently scribbled on the back of a flier over New Comer teen pregnancy. For the past hour since he had arrived, there had been four cases of strained backs and that was it. A word from Dr. Frankel about improper sexual techniques and they had been on their way.
He wasn't hoping for people to get injured, but something to liven up his first day in the clinic wasn't too much to ask for. Weren't there some Tenctonese children who needed their vaccination shots? Walking over to the patient files, he checked the schedule. There were five on the patient roster due in the next week.
The next week?
Rolling his eyes, Peter closed the metal clipboard and hung it back on the wall. As he walked back to his spot at the nurse's station, he picked up a red pen. It was used for making special annotations in Tenctonese, but that was only done by Dr. Frankel, so it was never used.
Sitting down, he pulled the cap off it. He leaned over the counter, putting his chin in his hand. Almost of its own will, his hand started to scratching out on another bulletin. Figuring it was best to let his mind wander that way than others, he left it to it.
He would do more studying, but there was no reading while on duty. Peter was beginning to understand Vedrene's obsession with paper work. Though, no matter how bored he got, he would never eschew it in favor of smiling at people. That woman still gave him the creeps.
He wasn't even going to think about the butt prints he had found on the fax machine's scanner.
Snorting, he closed his eyes. It was just to give them something else to do. Everything would be fine if closed them just for a minute.
Just for a minute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the sound of a harsh gasp that woke him. Shooting up in his seat, he nearly knocked it backwards from the speed. Glancing about him to see the cause, Peter found only Dr. Frankel near by. Guilt immediate caused him to look away. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep, I swear. I was trying to fantasize about something."
A hand over her mouth, Cathy pointed over Peter's shoulder.
Spinning his chair, he frowned. It took him three tries to find what had upset her. On the wall, in the red ink, were several lines of Tenctonese. Peter glanced over at the pen where he had left when he fell asleep. Sure enough, the clear tube was almost empty of ink. "I didn't..." He moved quickly to gather up the papers and pens.
Having regained her composure, Cathy nodded. Coming up to the desk, she reached out to still his hands. When Cathy had his attention, she gave him a tight smile. "It's okay. Obvious it's too early."
"Are you certain?" Swallowing, Peter felt his heart stop in his chest. "I can do better, please, just give me a chance."
"That is not what I mean." She forced his twisting hands to let go of the pens before he broke them. "It is too early for patients to be arriving. They usually wait until eight in the morning. It is only emergency cases, sexual misadventures, and drunks that come in this early. That is why I chose this time for your first shift."
"Still, I fell asleep. That's a very bad sign." Not really, it was just a sign that he was having sex far too late. From now on, if Buck didn't show up before nine, it was lights out, legs closed. Stretching out his back caused him to wince.
Cathy had a knowing look over that. "I see." Standing up, she pulled the stethoscope from around her neck. Stuffing it in her smock pocket, she tilted her head towards the lounge. "Come on, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. The door buzzer will let us know if someone comes in."
Peter started to follow her, then he noticed the writing on the wall again. "What about that?" Pointing to it, he felt a little guilty.
"Leave it for the janitorial staff." Feeling a little silly over her reaction, Cathy snorted. "It's just a children's story anyways."
"Oh?" He let her take the lead, hoping she would elaborate. It might be just the thing to take his mind off the fact that his hands ached.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuckling, Cathy put her paper cup down on the counter. "It's not that Matt misunderstands at the time, it's that he forgets things. I know he doesn't do it deliberately, but it is hard for some people to learn new things." Glancing down at her ring finger, she sighed. "Not that it is easy for someone to accept new customs even after all this time."
"I understand." So much more than she would ever know, because he wasn't to tell her. Hell, he barely let himself think about it. "I don't think Buck even knows my last name."
"You're kidding." Properly scandalized, Cathy raised a hand. Realizing he was out of reach, she dropped it. "How can it not come up?"
"We don't really talk." It sounded perfectly filthy under better circumstances, but Peter wasn't up to being implicit. Watching the steam rise off his tea, he started to swirl it. "The few hours I do see him are usually filled with an attempt to relieve stress."
"That's not good. You can't build a relationship on that." This time, she crossed the room to stand next to him. Slowly, she reached up to place a hand on his back. "Have you tried to make time to talk to him?"
"Not really. I don't think I'd..." He was cut off mid sentence by an electronic buzzer. Clenching his eyes shut, he tossed back the rest of his tea.
Sighing, Cathy let it go. There would be plenty of time to discuss things when there wasn't a patient waiting on them. She waited until he finished swallowing to speak. "Ready to tackle your first patient?"
"No, but I'll make it up as I go along." Snickering, he reached in to his scrub pocket and pulled out his stethoscope. Raising his eyebrows, he plastered on a fake smile. "Show time."
Cathy met his with one of her own. They were definitely going to talk about this later. As his self appointed guide to New Comer relationships, she would not let him make a mistake if she could help it. Following him back in to the clinic, she saw there was only one man.
Judging by the way he was weaving and the bag in his hand, he had come in for the warmth. The recent rain had been dropping the temperature. She was only surprised there hadn't been more.
Taking the lead, Peter walked up to the New Comer man. "Hi. What seems to be the problem today?"
"It's cold." Voice slurred, the man pointed over his shoulder. "Gotta place to warm up?" Burping, he blinked at Peter several times.
"Right this way." Placing a hand on his shoulder, Peter smiled at Cathy. Despite the curve of his lips, he was already rolling his eyes.
She recognized that look, had made it many times herself. So, she would abide by his request and hang back. Let him handle it. If he did good, she would only have to remain in the shadows.
As Peter led the drunken man away, she crossed over to the desk. She would fill out some forms, just a regular anonymous file for a check up. Without it, there would be no official explanation for the reason why a bed and a blanket were used. Filling out the patient's complaint form, she put in a standard line that would tell the others what had happened.
Closing the file, she put it in the registry for accounting purposes. The number of these cases this quarter would determine the amount of funding allocated to such cases next quarter. Hospital policy was against letting vagrants have an unnecessary bed, but if the bean counters didn't know the reason, they couldn't complain.
With that done, she decided to look about for something else to do. Peter would be back in a minute or two, so she only need wait. The writing on the wall was still a little unsettling, so she focused on the desk. What she found there didn't inspire confidence in her either.
Picking through the papers Peter had been doodling on, she paused several times to stare. She was studying one particular image when the sound of Peter sneezing made her jump. Gathering up the papers, on instinct, she shoved them in an open folder.
She closed the folder just as Peter came around the corner, back in to the clinic. Smiling at him, she picked up the file. "How is our patient doing?"
"Sleeping like a drunken angel." Sighing, he headed back for the lounge.
Following behind, Cathy picked up a clipboard. She attached the file to it, then placed it in her slot on the wall. When the interns came in, it would be taken up and delivered to her office.
"Are you coming?" Peering around the doorway, Peter gave her an expectant look. He wanted to get the conversation started and over with.
"Yes." Hoping she didn't sound to distracted, Cathy gave the folder one last look. A shiver went down her spine as she entered the lounge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time the four o'clock rolled around, Peter was more than willing to go home. After nearly eight hours of constant studying with Dr. Frankel, he had had enough. There were only so many times he could force himself to reread the same bit of information before he was repeating it in his sleep.
Closing the text, he pushed back from the desk. He was at the nurse's station in the New Comer wing. Technically, it wasn't his post just yet, but since Dr. Frankel had been called away for emergency surgery, he hadn't any where else to go. A part of him had wished he had been able to go with her, but he knew that until he gained enough confidence in his own abilities, he was only a hinderance.
That didn't mean he wasn't allowed to dream, though.
Returning the book to the shelf along the wall, he felt a little better. He was halfway through them. Another two weeks, and Cathy would sponsor him for the certification exam. When that was complete, he would work directly for her. Nurse Vedrene would then be his subordinate.
May be then he could convince her that the paper work was not sexual substitute. Passing her by, he saw the way her fingers trailed over the book she was reading.
Not a chance.
Sighing, he headed for the New Comer wing's changing room. His name tag on the locker was so newly fresh that it still smelled of the molding machine. While he was changing out of his scrubs and back in to the clothes he had arrived at work in, the conversation with Dr. Frankel came back to him.
She had been right, of course, he had known that before she even said it. Still, it wasn't like he had time just yet to try for more of a relationship. Hell, he barely had time for sex with Buck as it was. Their schedules both kept them so busy.
Add to the fact of a normal police officer's schedule that Buck was trying to make Detective and there was basically no time. It wasn't much, some times just sleeping together, but it was more than he had before. Eventually things would slow down.
They could get to know each other then.
Shutting his locker, Peter still couldn't help the little part of him that didn't believe it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Letting himself in to his motel room, Peter carried the brown paper bag of groceries across the room to the kitchenette. The contents were almost enough to restock the cabinet. Since it looked like he was going to be living in L.A. long term, he was going to have to find an apartment soon. That meant doing more than just giving the ads a cursory glance.
Unfortunately, the reason he hadn't been doing a more in depth search was the fact everything was so damned expensive. The cheapest places he could find in his price range were in downtown little Tencton. But those shit holes were little better than what he was living in now, and twice the price.
It was no wonder half his neighbors looked like they lived there full time.
Sighing, he set the bag down. There were only a few things he needed to replenish, since there wasn't much room, it was easy to keep stocked. Once that was done, he folded the paper bag and set it beside the mini fridge. Then he had nothing left to do.
Glancing about his room, he found it was still cleaned. He supposed he could have done it by hand earlier. That way would have taken longer, but he hated to do that when he didn't have to. So, he had focused his abilities, learning to control them even better.
Speaking of getting better control, he walked over to the fridge. Pulling out a small burrito from the freezer shelf, he opened it and set it on a plate. There were only four of in the set, so it wasn't like he had a large variety to pick from. After closing the fridge, he held his hand over the burrito.
He bent his head to the side so he could watch as his palm started to glow. The smell of it cooking quickly filled the motel room. Sighing when he figured it was done, he shook his hand cold.
Peter stared at the cooling burrito. So this is what it had come down to. A Friday night in the entertainment capital of the world and he was at home hand nuking a burrito. Certainly, it was an incredible ability.
He could put his fist through a fucking pylon!
He could fly across the country in a matter of hours!
He could destroy half of L.A. if he really, really felt like it.
But no. He was stuck here in his motel room, waiting for his god damned burrito to cool down enough so he could eat it. Why? Because he was going to have a talk with Buck.
He was going to stop him before he started humming. Once the New Comer got that far, Peter couldn't stop himself. They were going to sit down and have a nice long talk for a change. Even if the only thing they ended up settling was what their favorite colors were, he was going to learn something about Buck besides that he licked having his forehead spots licked before coming.
The spots on his lower back were tingling when a series of knocks erupted from his door.
Growling at his musing being interrupted, Peter set his empty plate down. The taste of beans in his mouth was the only sign that it had ever existed. Now he knew he really needed to do something about it. If he hadn't even realized he had been eating while thinking, there was too much going on.
Dusting off his fingers on his pants, he walked over to his door. Setting his face in an expression that would tell Buck he wasn't in the mood, he swung the door open. He stared in confusion for a second at the young New Comer woman on the other side. "May I help you?"
"Are you Petar?" The young woman looked ready to spit upon him, clutching her hand bag as if to use it as a weapon.
The inclination to deny it, not just because of the mispronunciation, was incredibly strong. He was only in the mood to confront one person. If she got in his way, it would only end badly. Clenching
his fists, he readied himself for a physical confrontation. "Yes, why do you ask?"
"Tert!" Pointing her bag at him, she hissed at him. "You will stay away from Buck Francisco, you disgusting freak! The taint of your flesh will not spread. I won't allow it!"
Peter knew he must have done something, because suddenly she was backing away from him. He only hoped it wasn't something the neighbors could see. "Go away before I call the police."
She hissed something at him in Tenctonese before backing away further. Snarling, she waited until her shoes hit the pavement of the parking lot before spinning. Holding her head high, she speed-walked to her car.
Reaching for the door knob, Peter found his hand glowing. Raising his head, he looked over to the mirror next to the door. He found his bones highlighted from the within. His eyes glowed brilliant red. Clenching them shut, he took a calming breath.
It took a great deal of concentration, but he eventually forced himself to let it go. The anger was still there, but he would not be ruled by it. He would not allow Sylar's words to come true.
Still feeling shaky, Peter walked over to the only chair in the room, a recliner in front of the television. He eased himself in to it, drawing comfort from the sturdy support. Settling in, he decided to wait for Buck.
Several hours later, he fell asleep, still waiting.
THE END...................................