taxonomites | 004: [Location: Winchester House] No good deed goes unpunished.

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004: [Location: Winchester House] No good deed goes unpunished.

( OOC: Follows this thread. )

Mary stumbled through the front door, leaning back against it with a soft whimper as she pushed it closed behind her. She hadn't bothered to ask Peter who he was going to go get help from, but she knew that she couldn't keep what was going on from Nathan. Something was wrong with his brother; he had to know what he would be getting into if he talked to Peter when he was like this. She didn't want him to get hurt the same way that she had, trying to calm him down. The way Peter had talked, she knew that a few wrong words and she wouldn't have made it out of that alive.

Her injuries, while uncomfortable, weren't the worst that she had ever endured. She was cut and bruised from the fall, but she hadn't hit her head. The most she was going to have to deal with would be a few days of soreness, although the timing was just lousy. Thanksgiving was a few days away, and this meant that she'd have to pace herself better to get through everything that she had planned. It was inconvenient, but she could cover it up fairly easily. She hadn't had to hide bruises in years, but what clothing wouldn't cover, makeup would.

"Hello?" She called out, her gaze focused on the top of the stairs. Mary kept her weight supported against the door, and her hand against a scrape on her side that felt like fire and had bled through her white blouse. All of these little injuries were nothing when she considered that she was supposed to be dead by now, but that didn't make them sting any less as she tried to force her legs to carry her into the living room. Once she was on the couch she could pass out for a while, and she'd worry about cleaning herself up later. Somewhere in the middle of that, she'd have to warn Nathan that his brother had lost his mind.

Why couldn't anything in her life be simple?

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You're just not that lucky, Mary.

Nor was she lucky enough to escape seeing Nathan before she could get cleaned up. Although he wasn't in the house just yet, he was behind her. Exhausted after just getting back from the Sanctuary, after all the insanity, the last thing he expected was the image Mary presented.

"... Mary?"

He reacted instead of waiting for her to answer, moving faster to get to her as soon as he saw blood on her shirt. "Jesus." He muttered, getting one arm around her loosely and starting to help her inside. "What happened?" The idea that his brother might've had a hand in this was the farthest thing from his mind. "Come on, let's get you to the couch."

Nathan was five steps ahead of himself, thinking about towels and water, ice and bandages, aspirin and whiskey if she wanted it. Along with whatever else she'd need. They just needed to get to the damn couch first.

"How bad is it?"

Mary's glad to see Nathan come in behind her - mostly because it's not one of the boys, and she can make sure that they never hear about this. She lets him help her over to the couch, lowering herself to sit down slowly and catching her breath. "I'm fine," she assured him, reaching over for another cushion to put behind her back.

Of course she's fine, Winchesters have two modes: fine and dead. Although it really could have been a lot worse, and she's relieved that nothing feels broken. They won't have to call Toby for anything, which means she won't have to scare him over her own stupidity. She should have stayed away from Peter when he warned her.

"If your brother is the good one, what on earth do you have planned for me?" Maybe that wasn't the way to tell Nathan that Peter had practically attacked her, but Mary couldn't think of any appropriate way to say something like that. Instead, he has to settle for her question, and a confused, slightly irritated look. She doesn't blame Nathan, but honestly, he never said Peter was dangerous.

That's something Mary would have remembered.

He buys 'I'm fine' just as much as he would if it was coming out of Peter's mouth, but Nathan's a little distracted from arguing. "Peter did this?" He sighed at the look he got from Mary. "He is the good one." He promised her, and under normal circumstances, he would be.

"I think it's a glitch." Nathan headed out of the room, going into the kitchen to get some ice. "Give me a minute."

After digging around, he wrapped an ice pack in a towel and brought that back along with a bowl of water and a facecloth, with peroxide under his arm. "Sit back, alright?" He'd clean up what he needed to, and deal with it from there.

"He's contained in the Sanctuary right now," Nathan hated himself a little for talking about Peter like that, setting everything out on the coffee table. "They're taking care of him until something can be figured out. It's Sylar's ability, he can't control it."

"Think maybe you should have told people that he was glitched," she mumbled, sitting back and letting Nathan do most of the work. The ice pack was in grabbing distance, and she knew that she needed to clean her cuts and ice the aches, but she didn't care to work up the energy it would take to do all of that on her own. Someone was taking care of her; it was kind of nice. Different, but nice.

Mary fidgeted a little at the sting when she felt the cold cloth against her skin, trying not to shift her body away from it. "So on top of all of the other things this man has done, he also has an uncontrollable ability that your brother was able to inherit?" She didn't entirely understand how the little details of Nathan's life worked, but that seemed to be an important one. If she had known about it sooner, she would have been more careful about how she had chosen to talk to Peter.

She thought back on the conversation with Peter and opened her eyes, watching Nathan clean her cuts while she collected her thoughts. "Peter thinks Sylar is going to try to hurt you. He was so upset - I can't even - he said he failed you. He doesn't believe he's strong enough to control it because he couldn't save you." The last thing she wanted was for Nathan to feel guilty about something he couldn't control, however, he could influence what happened in Taxon. He could convince Peter that he was wrong. "He told me not to tell you about this."

By that point, Nathan was focusing particularly close on the work he was doing. "He already told me some of this." He promised, cleaning off the last of the blood he could see, then going to work with the peroxide. "Sorry." He said in advance, glancing at her, then back down at what he was doing.

"He knows Sylar killed me." He treated this part as casually as one could in this situation. "And then we found out in our time, he was walking around with my face. Our mother had a telepath do it so Sylar could take my place against his will."

The only part he considered typical was that Sylar hadn't been given a choice in the matter. The rest of it, he was still having a hard time wrapping his brain around. "And then this happened, and..." Nathan paused, dropping the cloth back in the bowl. "He's in the best place he can be for the moment."

Mary didn't complain about the peroxide, just reached out to grip the arm of the couch as firmly as possible. Minor injuries weren't bad at all when it was put into perspective, but perspective was a slightly harder to find like this. Luckily, Nathan wasn't pressing too hard or moving too quickly. She was a little surprised that he'd be that careful, and then she had to smile a little when she remembered that he had two small sons. All parents knew how to be gentle when the situation called for it. "If it's a glitch, it won't last very long."

Sam's glitch had only lasted for a few days. A few horrible days, in which Mary hadn't slept at all thanks to the possession and Dean's unrelated injuries, but when all was said and done, he had returned to normal. The same would happen to Peter. He'd be fine aside from the guilt, but they needed to keep him from seriously hurting someone. She nodded at Nathan's words, silently agreeing that he needed to be contained for now.

"It's good that your mother isn't here," she added softly, not wanting to waste her breath saying more than that about a woman who would do such a thing to her own sons. "The two of you can work on this. You're family." Mary needed to believe that as much as she wanted Nathan to buy into it with her. "He hasn't lost you here. This is where he needs you, and you'll know what to do when he's ready to discuss it."

"Maybe." He nodded, but he didn't say anything past that. Inspecting his work once he was through, Nathan grabbed the bowl of water and the peroxide. "I'll be right back." He left the room, and went digging around for the bandages and the medical tape.

Nathan walked back in a few minutes later, taking a seat back in front of Mary. "I didn't miss anything, did I?" He glanced at her before he started bandaging up what he'd already taken care of. Judging by the look of her, he might need more ice, but he was pretty sure he'd gotten all of it.

"I'm sorry about this." Peter wasn't here to be guilty about it, so Nathan would have to do. "Under normal circumstances, Peter never would've done this. You two would've gotten along." Granted, that might be a bit hard to believe at the moment, but it was still true.

"You didn't. We'd already know if you missed something," Mary confirmed for him with a small nod. It did a lot to help her relax when she remembered that there wasn't anything especially important going on until Thanksgiving. She could sleep through most of tomorrow if she needed to, provided that she had a reasonable excuse for the boys. Or, she could wake up in time for dinner and not worry about excuses at all.

"This isn't that bad, Nathan." She hadn't done anything to deserve it, but she knew how the glitches played out. You didn't have to do anything to set the other person off. She believed that she would have liked Peter if he felt like himself. Even when he'd been hurting her, she could tell he had been upset with himself. He was fighting whatever was forcing him to lose control. And he had let her go. "It's fine. You don't have to apologize. I just hope he starts feeling like himself again soon."

"So do I." Nathan absolutely didn't consider it 'fine', but he focused on what he was doing instead of arguing with her. It was better than her being angry with Peter for what happened. And he needed to focus. He also needed to be sure none of this got inappropriate.

That would be wrong.

"Done." He sat back at last once the last bandage was finished, and gathered everything up to put it away. "Put the ice pack over your side, the rest should heal fine with a little rest." He left the room again to put everything away, and came back.

"I'll keep you updated on what happens with him." Nathan promised, and gave a small reassuring smile to back it. "You want help getting upstairs so you can get some sleep?" Look at him. Helpful guy.

"I can get up there myself, Dr. Petrelli," she answered, starting to sit up straight and then standing with a little difficulty. She was still dizzy and had to drop the ice and reach over, grab on to the arm of the couch and steady herself, but she didn't fall back like he might have been expecting. "...Just pick that up for me, please." So she was pushing it a little, there was nothing wrong with that.

"And Nathan," Mary was pretty sure that this went without saying, but she wanted to make herself clear, in case he didn't think about it. "I don't want the boys to know about this. Not Sam, not Toby, and definitely not Dean." He wouldn't go chasing after Peter if he knew it was a glitch, but she did think he'd dislike the idea of Nathan staying with her even more than he already seemed to if he knew that these kinds of things happened because of their abilities.

"This is going to have to be our little secret." Compared to the other ones she had kept over the years, it was nothing.

"Understood." Nathan nodded. He'd feel the same way in her position, he couldn't fault her for it. He reached over and snatched up the ice pack, biting back a smile at just how far she was pushing it.

"Ready to take it upstairs, Wonder Woman, or is there something else you want me to get?" Doctor, pack mule, jackass, he was willing to fill any role here as long as she'd let him. It was better than her running around swearing up and down she could take care of herself.

But he probably wasn't too far off from that.

"Wonder Woman?" Mary grinned in spite of her injuries, shaking her head at the suggestion. She knew it was only a compliment, but she couldn't help thinking that he didn't know her very well if that was the title he was willing to give her. She'd caused a lot of trouble by trying to talk to Peter tonight, not just for herself, but for Nathan and Peter, too. "I have everything I need." Except a clear head, which would come after some rest.

She took the ice pack from him, so that he could do whatever he needed to instead of following her up the stairs. If she took them slow and moved one step at a time, she could make it up there without much trouble. Nathan didn't have to be helping her like this, he'd already done more than enough for one night. "Thank you, for everything."

"Don't worry about it." Nathan dismissed the gratitude with a wave of his hand, shrugging. "It was the least I could do. And... Really. I'm sorry about this." Hopefully she wouldn't hold this against Peter in the future, even unconsciously. If they were going to stay friends, that would make things a little difficult.

"I'll be in my-- The guest room, if you need me." That was dangerous. "I'll have the tablet out just in case." With a smile and a nod, he went to the stairs, going up to the guest room.

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004: [Location: Winchester House] No good deed goes unpunished.

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