By Fabrisse
Series Title: Relationships
Section Title: Townie, part 1
Author: Fabrisse
Pairing: Nathan/Heidi
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~2600
Category: Drama
Spoilers: Pre Season 1, minor for Season 2 through Four Months Ago
Summary: Heidi comes in to Nathan's life
Warnings: None on this section.
Betas: [info]snopes_faith and [info]riverfox
Notes: This came out of discussions at TwoP during the episodes Nothing to Hide and Six Months Ago about either how clueless Heidi was to the vibes between her husband and his brother or how complicit she was in the secret. Since the deleted scenes in Nothing to Hide give us Nathan at Annapolis and Angela calling Heidi a "townie" those two things have entered my personal canon. The overall story is in three parts, "Townie," "Brothers," and "Relationships." Each segment will have it's own rating, but the overall series is ADULT-EXPLICIT.
One of the absolute tenets of her life was that nothing would bother her.
Nathan had warned her right after she'd agreed to meet his family that his mother wouldn't approve because his mother never did.
He'd been a gamble for her. She was the last of a kind. Old money and old politics had been the mainstays of her life.
Now, everything had changed.
Peter was dead, and somehow her husband had died too even if he was still walking around.
The dice had rolled, and Heidi had lost. Now her children were all she had.
***
They had first met at a mixer.
Her boarding school and other schools held several a semester for the freshman and sophomore girls, and as a prefect, she was expected to help chaperone at least one each term. Heidi needed to do a little negotiation to get the Annapolis mixer. After all, it was the only dance of the year where there were college boys. But a promise to cover two extra weeks as a server plus a deep appeal to Miss Carter about being able to see her family without wasting a home day gave her what she needed.
The bus arrived in plenty of time. Heidi and a friend were met by her parents and whisked off for a nice lunch before the mixer began.
The dance itself was all right. The sound system was too loud, but at least the music was live. Heidi managed to prevent one of her younger charges from walking out with a twenty-year old, and in general, everyone behaved themselves.
During the breaks between sets, the sound system played old music, the kind for the type of dancing the officer candidates didn't learn any more. Most of the girls had gone to cotillion, as had she, so a few of them paired off and danced.
"Are the chaperones allowed to take a turn on the floor?" The voice behind her was deep and a little rough; it went straight down her spine. When she turned and saw how handsome the young man was, her knees shook.
He gave her a confidential smile, one that said he knew the effect he had. "Nathan Petrelli."
"Heidi Abbott. And chaperones only dance if their partners are competent."
Nathan's smile broadened as he put an arm around her waist and whisked her expertly onto the floor.
"Am I? Competent, I mean."
"I doubt you'd have asked me if you weren't."
"Do I seem that calculating to you?" He seemed genuinely interested in her answer.
"I don't know you well enough to judge, Midshipman. But I know most young men like to show off."
The music ended. "Very astute, Miss Abbott."
They parted with smiles. Heidi was surprised that he didn't ask her again later. She looked for him, but didn't see him anywhere for the next couple of hours.
Just about the time she was beginning to gather up the girls from her school to remind them where the bus was, she saw Nathan. He beckoned, and she followed.
"I'm sorry to do this to you, Miss Abbott, but I think I saw you talking to her earlier." The 'her,' Nathan indicated with a nod of his head, was a freshman from her school. Correction, Missy Fredericks was now an exceedingly drunk freshman from her school.
"Thank you, Midshipman. I'll get her back to school." Heidi noticed the panicked look on Missy's face, and got her pointed over the bushes before she emptied her stomach. "I hope I can keep her from being expelled."
Heidi looked Nathan full in the face. He looked grim. "I appreciate your finding me rather than our official chaperone."
"Is there someone you trust to make sure she gets where she needs to go?"
"Yes, Midshipman." Heidi was puzzled.
"Please call me Nathan."
"And I'm Heidi. I'll be right back."
It only took her a few minutes to hand Missy over to a group of sophomores she trusted and to start herding them to the bus. She asked the main chaperone for permission to go and say goodbye to someone.
Less than five minutes later, she was back.
"So Nathan, how did you find her?"
"I heard her yell. Found two of my..." He could barely speak the phrase between clenched teeth. "Two of my fellow midshipmen with her. I don't know how long they'd been giving her drinks, but I didn't like what I saw."
"All right." Heidi had noticed that Missy's blouse wasn't buttoned straight and one of her shoes had a cracked heel. Nathan's reticence painted a more vivid picture than words could.
"I was out without permission tonight," Nathan admitted. "Anyone was allowed to attend the dance, but only upperclassmen had permission to leave the campus."
"Which is why you danced with me so blatantly earlier, everyone would remember seeing you."
"I danced with you because I thought you were the prettiest girl in the room. The other part was just a bonus."
"Be that as it may..."
"Those men should be on report."
"Missy is thirteen. She got into high school a year early. I think being on report is the least they should face."
"Crap." Nathan closed his eyes and thought. "Excuse me. I didn't mean…"
"I've heard worse."
He nodded. "Let me walk you to your bus."
"Of course, Nathan."
"May I have your address? To attest to Missy's state when I came to get you?"
"Of course. I thought…"
Nathan seemed to read her mind. "Yes, I'll put myself on report. They deserve what they'll get. If I'm lucky, my punishment for being AWOL won't be as bad."
"Thank you."
"It will keep me on the right side of the honor code. My record is clean. It shouldn't hurt too much."
"It seems I owe you a great deal of thanks, Nathan."
He pulled her to one side, out of the light. "Let me write to you."
"You were meeting a girl tonight?"
"Yes."
"I won't send back your letters, but I won't write back. You have a girlfriend, and I won't get in the way of that."
Nathan took her hand and walked her farther down the path. "That's what I thought you'd say."
When they got to the bus, Nathan took her completely by surprise by saying, "You're a good woman, Heidi." He kissed her cheek. "I like you."
***
It was nearly five years before they met again. Heidi was working on a Master's in Art History at Columbia. Some days, she needed a break, so today, she decided to go to the Natural History Museum.
After about an hour, she noticed Nathan from across the room; it took her a moment to place him. There was a young teenaged boy with him, and they seemed to be joking about some of the exhibits. For nearly an hour, her path criss-crossed theirs at odd intervals Nathan and his companion looked to be enjoying themselves.
Heidi stopped in the ladies' room at one point, and walked right into Nathan as she came out.
"It's good to see you again."
"And you, Nathan."
He turned to the dark-eyed teenager with him. "This is my little brother, Peter Petrelli. Pete, this is Heidi Abbott. We met while I was at Annapolis." She noticed how smoothly he'd slipped in his family name, in case she'd forgotten, and made it clear he hadn't forgotten hers.
Heidi held out her hand, and Peter shook it politely. "It's nice to meet you, but Nathan and I are in kind of a hurry."
"Excuse me a minute, Heidi." Nathan took his brother aside and had a few words with him. The only thing she heard came from Peter. "I know how you get around girls." She could practically hear the eye-roll accompanying the statement as she pretended to be fascinated by the apple growing cycle in Dutchess County. There was another minute of whispering and then Peter walked off with a smile toward the Planetarium.
Nathan returned to her with a smile. "We already have tickets. He was worried about getting good seats, so he's going to wait in line."
"I take it you don't get much time with him."
"It's more that I'm shipping out in three days. I think he's worried about me."
"You're still in the Navy?"
"They didn't kick me out for going off the campus, if that's what you're asking."
Heidi blushed. "I'm sorry. That didn't come out right."
"Fair enough."
They started to wander toward the line where Peter was waiting. "Look Heidi, I promised Peter today and tonight. I have a family obligation the night before I leave, but could I have lunch or dinner with you tomorrow?"
"I take it you're not seeing anyone?"
"Not at the moment, no."
"Which would you rather?"
"I'd like to take you out to dinner and then go to a club and all the rest, but I don't want to overwhelm you."
"Dinner it is. We'll see about the club."
Nathan looked surprised. "May I pick you up or would you rather meet me at the restaurant?"
"I'll meet you." She took out a pad of paper and wrote out her phone number. "Call me and let me know when and where. I get out of class at five, so we can eat early if you want."
Peter was waving at Nathan to hurry up. The line was moving. "Go on, don't keep your brother waiting." Nathan grinned at her, and then ran to join his brother.
***
Dinner was a little earlier than fashionable, but it didn't matter because the restaurant was excellent. Nathan explained when he told her where to meet him that the early time was the only reservation available. After seeing the way the captain and the waiters greeted him, Heidi suspected that no reservation had been available at all. They'd simply made room and made an exception for Nathan Petrelli.
Growing up in Annapolis, she was used to seeing the midshipmen in their uniforms, and it was always telling the first time she saw someone in mufti. Nathan had looked comfortable in jeans and a sweater the day before, but seeing him in a suit cemented her understanding of who he was and what he came from. In her mother's generation, the file card would have said 'marriage material.'
When the appetizers were served, she turned from the waiter and asked, "Tell me the worst thing you know about yourself."
"Know about myself or the worst thing I've done?"
It pleased her that Nathan wasn't shying away from the question. "Since you make the distinction, both."
"If I don't … police … myself, I use people. The night that we met, for instance, I knew you were the person most likely to keep the girl out of serious trouble and to keep me from the much greater consequences that would have occurred had I called the authorities."
"But there were consequences. I received a letter from the commandant telling me those men had been expelled and charges filed."
"For me, it was a full semester of punishment detail. It prevented my taking the highest midshipman rank when my class became eligible. But believe me, my personal consequences might have been far worse if I hadn't used you as a buffer."
"I was mostly a buffer for Missy. She was confined to campus for the rest of the year. But as you say, if the police had been called, she would probably have been expelled too."
"I didn't say I wouldn't try to find the best solution for everyone involved – just that I look to myself, or my family, first."
"And the worst thing you've ever done? Since you made the distinction."
"I got my girlfriend pregnant. Midshipmen don't have permission to marry. So, I let my family settle a sum on the child and help her get back to her people in Texas until after I graduated. At that point, I figured I could get permission and 'do the right thing' as they say."
"I don't see a wedding band."
"There was a fire. They died."
Heidi could practically see the wall come up around him. She took refuge in platitudes. "I'm sorry."
"The worst part was how relieved I felt." The words were quiet.
"Did you want them dead?"
Nathan looked at her sharply. "No. But the pregnancy made it very clear that Meredith and I were only … a phase for each other. There was nothing but sex between us. If she and the baby had lived, I would have tried to make it work. We might even have succeeded, but I'm not sure it would have been the best thing for any of us."
Heidi decided to meet confidence with confidence. "The worst thing I can say about myself is that I lack passion. I keep my head in a crisis. I do well at most things I set out to do, but I've never wanted something or someone enough to take risks. I'll get my master of fine arts. I may do something further with it, but it won't be because I love it or feel strongly about sharing art or even the responsibility we have as a society to share great art with people who can't afford it. I'll do it because it's what I have my degree in."
Nathan smiled gently at her. "My life was planned out from birth. And I followed the plan, even enhanced it a bit. Being Peter's brother was the first thing that changed me. But the first time I flew at the academy, I knew this was the most important thing I'd found. I changed my life to learn to fly fighter jets and just … connect with the sky. Maybe you just haven't found the someone or something yet."
"Maybe. But I've heard one of my six year old cousins talk about robots with more conviction than I have about Rembrandt."
That got a laugh from Nathan. "Ask your folks what you talked about when you were six. Maybe you'll rediscover a passion."
***
Later they walked through the city talking about anything that kept them together. Heidi was never quite sure why she did it, but, after a particularly bad pun on Nathan's part, she grabbed his tie and pulled him into a kiss.
"If that's lack of passion, I worry about your definition," Nathan teased her quietly, his voice rough against her ear. Heidi turned her face towards him and captured his lips again.
It was her turn to whisper. "If you hail a cab, we can be at my place in ten minutes."
Nathan held her shoulders and stepped away to look in her eyes. "I'm getting on a ship the day after tomorrow. I have family commitments tomorrow that mean I won't be able to see you. All we'd have is tonight."
She stepped toward him and cupped his face in her hands. "Tonight's enough." Heidi watched him closely. Nathan was going through some type of internal struggle. He pulled her close and kissed her again. Then he stepped to the street and hailed a cab.
***
When Heidi woke up the next morning, there was a note on the bedside table. Nathan had left his address in New York, his address on the ship, and a very sweet 'thank you' for the night before.
Three days later, she got her first letter from him. He'd posted it on the way to join the crew of the Roosevelt. She wrote him back immediately. And for the next three years, she got three letters a week from the man she was falling in love with.