New Years one-shot || Miracles happen once in awhile when you believe
Brooke had surprised Isaac by showing up at his door unannounced. No one should have to spend New Years alone, and she didn't figure he had company over. He was a bit of a loner. Why, she wasn't sure. Well, there was the whole drug thing. That could partially explain why he was sort of a social outcast. Maybe he just liked being away from the crowd. It gave him plenty of time to work on his paintings ... the ones that more often than not upset him. Don't think she'd forgotten about the apocalyptic mural on the floor. This might be a great time to ask him about it, now that he was feeling better. At least she assumed he was. Things had gotten super chaotic for Brooke, so she hadn't really seen Isaac since the night he overdosed. What kind of friend did that make her?

Thankfully, he seemed to be doing well, and he graciously invited her in.

The plate of cookies she was holding might've helped excuse her failure to fulfill the duties of a good neighbor, even if he hadn't noticed her absence. She wasn't a skilled cook by any means, but by now she'd learned to fix a few things that she could actually share. For example, chocolate chip cookies.

Isaac said he liked them, so she only had a couple. Just in case he didn't have anything else around to eat, she wanted to leave him with the rest. She also oh-so-casually asked him how he'd been, although she tried to keep her tone level and non-accusatory. Hopefully his last scare had discouraged him from using again, but addicts weren't always easy to reason with. In any case, she didn't want to lecture him or anything, 'cause she hated when she was the one being lectured, and she wasn't the self-righteous type. Though wouldn't it be nice to kick off the new year clean and sober? Resolution time! ... Though who really did that?

Isaac was in the process of explaining why he shot up. According to him, there was a lot more to it than that. But they were interrupted by Simone who'd waltzed right in assuming her boyfriend was alone. Personally, Brooke wasn't crazy about the woman, but out of respect for Isaac, she apologized for her blunt outburst last time they'd spoken and came up with an excuse to leave. They could finish this conversation some other time. He probably shouldn't be thinking about this kind of stuff right now anyway. There was one eventful thing that had come out of this though. She'd told him what she could do to validate her 'I believe in you' statement. He'd asked her why, so she'd told him. She'd even given him a demonstration after he'd sworn not to tell a living soul.

Now that she got to thinking about it, the list of people that knew about her ability was getting awfully long: Peter, Claire, Isaac, Leslie, Dr. Suresh ... whether Nathan knew or not was iffy. 'Course three of them were friends, the incident with Les had been sort of an accident, Mohinder was a scientist who might be able to give her some answers, and if the eldest Petrelli brother knew, it was by association. But she didn't really have a problem with him knowing. He had too many secrets of his own to concern himself with hers. Wasn't politics great?

However, Brooke decided right then and there that no one else would find out.

She boldly stepped forward to give Isaac a completely innocent hug. Come on, he needed it. Surely Simone wouldn't hold it against her. Then she stepped back and flashed a broad smile. "Y`all have fun, and you take care of yourself." The last part was obviously directed at Isaac before she mouthed the words 'see you later,' turned, and walked out the door.

Where to next? To find Claire, of course. Her roommate had invited her along, but Brooke had wanted her to spend some time alone with her family. It was the perfect opportunity to get acquainted, but they'd had lots of quality time already. No way was she going to be alone at midnight - not this year. Besides, Claire had acted like she really wanted her to be there too.

Thing is, searching for anybody in this crowd would be as hard as finding a needle in a haystack, so she took a shortcut.

Brooke weaved her way through the hoards of people until she spotted the three she was looking for up ahead. Once she cleared herself a path, she snuck around to the opposite side of Peter ( since Claire was sandwiched in the middle ). "Did I miss anything?" ... Besides everyone standing around, packed in here like sardines as they counted down till midnight, although she didn't mind being surrounded by a bunch of strangers. Guess you could say she was used to being alone in a crowd. But not this year. Now to see how long this sense of belonging would last ...

Regardless of how permanent this new arrangement was, she was loving every minute of it.

When Brooke got asked how she'd found them in all this mayhem, she coyly canted her head to the side. "I have him to thank," she said, nodding her head in Nathan's direction. "I told them it was a political emergency, and that I had to find Congressman Petrelli right away. Phone service is really poor out here, so I took a gamble, and they were nice enough to point me in the right direction." See? Shortcut. It'd worked like a charm.

Claire was thrilled she'd made it after all and instantly started filling her in on everything she'd missed, but the countdown began which drowned out any side conversations going on.

Actually, this was kind of exciting. Even though Brooke had been in New York a few years now, she hadn't ever been here to witness this annual city tradition. So one could easily say she was just as swept away by the moment as her younger, out-of-town companion.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, ... 3, ... 2, ... 1!

The first thing she did to celebrate the new year was turn to her neighbor and kiss him. Truth was she'd thought about it once or twice before, but she hadn't wanted to ruin a good thing. The beauty of making her move now was she could blame the atmosphere instead of professing her feelings or anything like that. Unless he felt something for her ... then maybe this would encourage Peter not to be so shy. And if he saw her as just a friend, hey, she was cool with that also. She could do a playful peck here and there without any serious commitment, or she could keep her hands off of him. Brooke wasn't a clingy person. Though gotta admit, she enjoyed their lip-lock, and she secretly wondered if her partner had too.

It probably wouldn't be hard to figure out. Peter was adorably awkward, even when it hadn't been a make-out session or any over-the-top public display of affection.

When they broke apart, she got a good look at his face and noticed he was blushing. Then she glanced over to Claire who was staring and smiling. The two girls hugged as Brooke confessed she was so happy to have her golden-haired Texan pal staying with her, even if it was just temporary.

Please, could this all last forever ... or just a little while longer? Brooke selfishly didn't want anything about this moment to fade.