hersoulinpieces | RP for [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] Accomplishments, I've had quite a few.

Niki was quickly getting used to the idea of being in the AA program once again. Now, two months in, and Niki had been clean and sober, and quite happy with her goals. The problem now lied in her strained relationship with one Nathan Petrelli, as well as the fact that she was nearing her forties, and wanting to have another baby. Niki had been doing her stellar best with trying to get herself pregnant, as well as finding just the right donor for her new baby. It would never be Micah, something she cried about constantly. So much so lately that her eyes were always red, and she felt she looked terrible.

Having gone to the clinic that morning though, Niki had gotten slammed with some bad news. They told her that it might be hard for her to actually conceive, with her age, and other co factors going on for her...she might not see the happy ending that she was truly looking for to happen. A baby, she felt, would make her feel whole again. Help her feel better in a confusing world where she was now all alone, and D.L. was now deceased. There had been a time when she was with Peter that she thought she had been pregnant, because she was two months late, but later found out that it was all because of intense stress that caused her menstruation to stop coming each month. With the bad news in hand, Niki found that she wanted to have a drink. She even bought the scotch, and had poured herself a glass, but then stopped mid sip and suddenly picked up the phone to call Nathan instead. May be they could hang out, and after a day of being around him things might look up. They were still running some tests, so she wasn't a 100 percent certain of being unable to have a baby, but they said that things did not look that good.

Sniffling, she picked up the phone and dialed Nathan's phone, waiting for him to pick up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was the third night this week Nathan woke up in cold sweats from his recurring nightmares, in a bed that wasn't his own, with a terrible hangover and--Jesus Christ, his fucking wallet was missing. Again.

How hard did a man have to hit rock bottom before he could see his life for what it really was? An endless string of drunken flirtations, nameless women, and myriad hotel rooms.

His wife had left him, and taken his children from him, and to add insult to injury, filed for sole custody, not to mention a divorce. He'd signed the divorce papers without a second thought, but God help Heidi if she thought she was keeping his kids from him. But it would seem he was doing a good job of that all by himself.

And then there was Peter. His brother. Missing, and presumed dead. Well, at least by the people in Peter's life that actually knew the truth about what had happened that night on Kirby Plaza. Those events were burned permanently into his brain, because he'd been reliving them at least once a week in his sleep. It had been months, but the nightmare of losing Peter to oblivion never failed to drive him impossibly deeper into his downward spiral.

"God damn it," Nathan groaned aloud, rolling over onto the other side of the bed, which smelled like cheap perfume and too much alcohol.

Then, his cell phone went off, the noise reverberating in painful pulses through his head. No, his whole fucking body. I'm getting too old for this shit, he thought, in one of those awful moments of clarity that the morning after brings.

He lurched to the bathroom to rinse his mouth so he wouldn't sound as terrible as he felt when he answered. The number looked familiar, but how would he know? He'd lost his last cell not too long ago during an episode just like this one.

"Petrelli," he mumbled, avoiding his reflection in the mirror. Even he didn't want to catch even the faintest glimpse of the man he'd become.

Edited 2010-11-22 02:13 (UTC)

Niki was pacing by the time Nathan finally picked up the phone, the drink was in her hand splashing over the rim of the glass onto her hand as she held it. Once she heard his voice, she suddenly felt bad because he sounded so haggard, but she also felt relieved to be hearing his voice suddenly on the other end.

"Nathan! It's...it's Niki..." Tentatively she spoke her next words, "are you okay? You sound terrible."

Nathan didn't answer her immediately; he shut his eyes, and pressed his fist to his forehead as if to physically hold back the spike of pain lancing through it. Niki? Didn't she know it was a terrible idea, while in recovery, to call someone from her old life? Risk of relapse, all that twelve-step bullshit he'd wanted to laugh at during the one and only time he'd sat in on one of those meetings.

"Hi. Just woke up, that's all. I'm fine," he lied as smoothly as he could, while fishing around on the floor for his discarded clothes. When he pulled his pants on, thank God, his wallet was in fact inside the pocket.

There was still a half-bottle of Scotch sitting on the bedside table, and he instantly knocked back a swallow, disregarding the fact that it was only ten A.M. The pain started to fade just as the liquor settled in his stomach. At least, as far as he was concerned.

"So...what are you doing?" The real question was, what was she doing calling him?

Edited 2010-11-23 06:51 (UTC)

"I...I um..." she went completely quiet for almost a minute, letting out a shaky breath of air.

"I'm staring at an almost full glass of scotch in my hand, and the rest of it on my hand and the floor. I...I didn't know who else to call. You were the first person I could think of...I'm sorry to bother you. I don't know what I was...am...not sure what I should do." Just then she kind of panicked, clicking her phone shut as she slid down the bathroom floor to a sitting position.

Putting the phone down next to her, Niki started to roll the glass between her hands, breaking down completely as she watched a couple of her tears roll down her nose and into the glass she was holding.

Edited 2010-11-23 07:09 (UTC)

Nathan listened to the click of the connection cutting off, and he shook his head in dismay, shutting the phone and setting it down next to the liquor bottle. God, he really didn't need this right now. How was he supposed to be of any kind of help when he was still drinking himself?

Anyway, didn't she have a sponsor to call if she felt the urge to jump off the wagon?

Real fucking sympathetic, Petrelli.

Who was he kidding? Sympathy had never been one of Nathan's strong suits.

He doubted he could be of any real help to Niki; it was more like the blind leading the blind. That's probably why she'd hung up. She'd probably remembered mid-sentence just who it was that she was asking.

But if she really didn't have anyone else...

He dialed her back and finished dressing while he waited for her to pick up.

By the time he decided to call her back on the phone, Niki was laying in a crumpled mess on the bathroom floor. Crying deeply, so much so that she hadn't heard the phone ringing at first. The glass of alcohol was laying only a mere few inches from her head. The smell of the scotch was intoxicating, but Niki kept herself balled up with her knees pressed to her forehead, hands pressed hard against her eyes. Her phone had skittered a few feet away from her when the worst of the crying forced her to lay down on her side. As it kept ringing, Niki lifted her hands from her face, and began screaming at it to shut up. She felt way too weak emotionally to try to even get up and grab the phone. She managed though to push herself up to sitting, as she crawled over toward it, and opened it, placing it to her ear. Niki tried to speak, but all that came out was an unintelligible sob, which led to more crying. Unable to find her voice, she just held the phone as she cried.

Nathan really hadn't expected this when he'd dialed her number. Or had he? He'd always thought she was stronger than that, wasn't she? Stronger than either one of them, being the one to go through the indignity of spending her quality time with the friends of Bill W.

"Niki? Talk to me. Hey! It's Nathan. Answer me, God damn it!" Nathan tries to get her attention, but she is in a dark place, and he knows the feeling. He's been there before. Maybe not now, however, and that's why she's come to him. He's just as damaged as she is, and the only difference is that neither one of them has spent enough time together to know just how much. He clicks the phone shut, hoping she can just hold on a little longer. Nathan knows he has to help her, and he'll just have to figure it out on the way.

Nathan takes to the sky, landing on the roof of Niki's apartment building in mere minutes. Such are the perks of being able to fly. He descends to the ground level, and reads the names on the mailboxes through the bullet-proof glass, punching the button to her intercom.

"Niki, it's me. Let me in."

Niki wasn't expecting him to come, really. She had hoped, in her heart of hearts, that he might. Yet, she thought he might be too upset with her to actually really show.

So, when the buzzer to her apartment rang, Niki stood up from her spot on the floor. Saying fuck it, on the way she poured herself a large glass of Scotch then made her way to her front door to buzz him in. She felt like little more than a zombie right then.

Doing her best to try to animate herself for his sake. Wanting to show him, even if it was a lie, that she was holding it together. He probably could see right through it, what could she do? Just see where this was headed.

"Nathan. May I get you a drink?" She took a deep gulp of her scotch, laughing into the mouth of the glass as she did so. It was a hollow, empty laugh. Watching him with dark, hollow look in her eyes.

RP for [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] Accomplishments, I've had quite a few.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Hope this is okay!