A Note From Lara: This is actually a sequel to my Daphne/Peter oneshot, Forgotten. You need to read that first. Don't worry, it's not long. Anyway, I was thinking about Molly's role in that, as the only person besides Peter who knows that Daniella is his daughter and not Matt's. And I started wondering what would have happened in the continuation of that "bad future." So this is assuming that despite Future!Peter's assassination attempt on Nathan, the future didn't get reset, and stuff just goes on as it has. Everything is canon, but... not. Not really AU, just... I don't know. Just work with me, 'kay?
Molly Walker and Matt Parkman
Matt's Apartment- Manhattan
Molly stared at the television, a pit of horror growing in her stomach at the image of the smoking hole that was Costa Verde. This was her fault, and not just because she told Daphne where to go. It was her fault because Peter had gone back to the past to try and change things. But he hadn't succeeded, and now Syl- no, he was Gabriel now, Molly watched him enough to know that much- Gabriel had been set off the way he should have been five years ago if things had gone a little differently in New York.
Either way, all this had happened because Peter was angry and grieving, and that was her fault. She had told him a truth he didn't want to hear.
"This is my fault," she said aloud. Not that she would tell Matt the full extent of why. She loved him like a father, but she knew that he was on the wrong side of this war. It didn't help that he had caused a split in her mind when he tried to make her believe that he and Daphne were really married, that Daniella was his daughter. It was a confusing double-resonance in her head when she thought about the past- she saw things both as they really were, and as Matt wanted her to remember them.
But that didn't change the fact that he was nearly the only person she had left to trust in the world, and he did care about her. "Don't talk like that," he said comfortingly.
She shook her head. "I told her to go to Costa Verde. If they hadn't been there, this wouldn't have happened."
At that moment, the door swung open and Daphne stood framed in the doorway. Matt leapt to his feet, and Molly observed the love in his face. Whether any of their relationship was real or not, he really did love her.
But the apprehension that had been growing in her chest since the moment she saw the devastation on the TV screen rose in a crescendo of panic as Daphne whispered, "I wasn't fast enough." And then she collapsed.
Matt caught her, whispering comforts and begging her to pull through, but she was fading fast, and Molly clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream at the sight of the welts and radiation burns that covered her foster mother's back. As the light in Daphne's eyes flickered, Matt allowed her to slide out of his arms onto the floor, crying softly into his hands, nearly hysterical with premature grief.
Molly hurried across the floor to kneel beside Daphne. "Mom?" she whispered, cradling her in her arms as Matt had just moments before.
For a moment, Daphne's eyes flashed clear. "I remember," she choked out softly. "Everything. Tell... tell Daniella when she's old enough." Her head fell back and a soft sigh escaped her.
The teenager closed her eyes for a moment against the sting of tears. It might not have been real, but it had been good to have a family again. A single tear seeped through her lashes, and Molly allowed herself a few seconds to feel the keen loss. Then she pressed a hand against her face to wipe away the moisture, and she rose to her feet.
Matt knelt on the floor beside his "wife," nearly hysterical with silent sobbing. She looked down at him for a moment, and was torn between comforting him and doing what needed to be done. But she knew that it would do no good to hug him and tell him it would be okay, because it wouldn't. Things hadn't been okay for a long time. She had pinned her hopes on Peter to fix it all, and he had failed, so now it was up to her. Maybe she couldn't save the world, but she could save what was left of this family.
And so she didn't give in to the urge to join him on the floor and cry. Instead, she put a bottle of formula in the microwave for Daniella and crossed over to the cracked telephone hanging on the wall in the kitchen and dialed.
When it was answered, Molly spoke curtly, angrily, to the woman whom she most blamed for losing Daphne. "Claire," she said harshly, "You'd better get your ass down here. You more innocent blood on your hands."
"What?" the ex-cheerleader asked snidely.
"It's Daphne," Molly replied in a fiercely calm voice. "She made it back here, but she couldn't survive her injuries. Now either you come down here and heal her with that magic blood of yours, or I will personally hunt you down and put a bullet in that soft spot in the back of your head."
"So violent for a little girl," Claire said condescendingly. "Fine, kid, I'll be there in an hour--" Suddenly, a loud commotion was heard in the background and when Claire spoke again, it wasn't to Molly. "What? What's happening? Rene, what's-- Shit! Peter, damn you...! Dad, no!"
The connection was cut off suddenly.
* * *
She found out later that the reason Claire had suddenly gone off-grid was the murder of President Nathan Petrelli, presumably at the hands of his time-traveling brother. But because of it, Claire wasn't free to come in time to save her associate.
The funeral was held a week later. Matt was a wreck, crying his eyes out, and Molly wondered how it was possible that he had come to care so quickly for a woman he hardly knew. You'd think they'd been married their whole adult lives, instead of six months of a whammy-induced relationship. But Molly sometimes suspected his mind-melds affected him to some degree as well, especially the very emotional ones.
For two months, the country was in chaos. The power structure on Capitol Hill had been completely destabilized by the assassination of the President, and with Tracy Strauss-Petrelli refusing to move out of the White House, the tabloids had a great deal to talk about in addition to the sudden increase in violent, power-related crime. But eventually, things stabilized, with ex-Secretary of State Adrian Cooper taking Nathan's place.
But the Parkman/Walker home didn't return to normal. Not even a little bit.
Matt was never the same after losing Daphne. Something broke inside him when she died, and things spiraled rapidly out of control. Molly noticed it first when the stock of the liquor cabinet went up sharply over the course of a few weeks. That wasn't all. He would leave the oven on, or forget to lock the door, or leave Daniella alone for hours on end.
Finally, Molly knew what she had to do.
"I'm taking Dani," she announced when Matt returned to the apartment that night (or really, it was early morning by that time). "Tomorrow. I'm taking her, and we're leaving. Matt, you gotta pull yourself together, but you can't do that and try to take care of a baby."
He didn't argue. He probably knew she was right. Either way, Molly packed a diaper bag and her own suitcase, and that morning they were on the eight a.m. Greyhound out of the City.
I know, I know. Shouldn't start a new fic. I always say that. But this one won't be long, and two of my ongoing fics only have two or three more chapters left, so I'll have those wrapped up soon. And I know I should do some of the ones on my To Do list before I start with new ideas but... what can I say? The words are there for this one!