Day 55: Cafeteria

[bodhiandspirit]

Though five days without bathing was hardly unusual for Rita, she was actually looking forward to showering today. To her, the last shift had been somewhat enjoyable, if only because it allowed her an opportunity to be alone with her thoughts for a bit. Of course, she couldn't be completely alone in the communal showers, but no one was rude enough

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[human_sponge]

Even though Peter hadn't held anything against Neku from the start, it had been nice to have a chance to talk to the kid and clear some things up. He now knew how Neku had been able to do all of those things, though the kid obviously didn't have access to the skills anymore. Peter decided he would do what he could to keep up with Neku, just to make sure that he handled things okay from here on out, but their conversation had ended before he knew it.

Meaning that they were going to be taken back to the cafeteria for some food, which Peter was both grateful for and apprehensive about. While he could definitely feel his appetite coming back even though he was half-fried himself and in a lot of pain as a result, he was worried that even the small movements he would have to make to eat would increase his suffering.

Couldn't he at least get some low-level painkillers? He wasn't even sure if they would do much good when he had such harsh burns, but it was worth a shot, at least to take the edge off.

When he bit the bullet and asked the soldier who was wheeling him back into the cafeteria if there was the possibility of having some drugs, the man brusquely replied that he could bring him something when he'd finished his meal.

Peter noticed that the man didn't even address the source of the wound. He didn't make up some ridiculous story for how he'd gotten the burns, but he also didn't specifically mention what happened at night, either. In a way, it was preferable to how the nurses had handled it.

Being in the wheelchair meant that Peter didn't get a proper look at the food until he was almost up at the counter. He caught just a glimpse of what the rest of the patients were being made to eat, but was told that his class meant he got the premium menu -- in other words, the sort of stuff they'd been served before all this.

They were really focused on setting up a divide between the patients here. Making an example of those who misbehaved, giving privileges to those who didn't; Peter wasn't sure if it was going to have the effect that they were aiming for, but it was definitely worrisome.

After getting a plate for him and then wheeling him over to an empty spot, the soldier threw the tray down onto the table and then stalked off. Sighing to himself, Peter started to reach his arms forward to grab his utensils, but even that pulled at the muscles in his back and doubled the pain. "Dammit," he hissed to himself.

[For Claire B.]

[autophoenix]

It was a little eerie, hearing someone else doing the announcing for Landel's. Even if she hadn't ever liked the original staff, after six days of them and the sudden switch, it was a little jarring. What was more jarring was the realization that it meant she'd gotten used to the life style that Landel's had forced her into to a degree. She had to have gotten somewhat used to it in order for it to really weird her out that the intercom announcements were different, right? Or at least she needed to have some kind of complacence.

The whole thing was unsettling. But, nothing as much as the mess that they were calling food. Claire made a face when it was heaped into a bowl in front of her and she didn't hide her disdain as she looked at the soldiers around her, though she quickly shifted her attention to the patients to find out who was in trouble and who wasn't.

The patients who had misbehaved, it seemed, were already starting their punishments. She couldn't really muster up as much sympathy as she'd like to, if she was being entirely frank, considering how annoying it had been to get nailed with cleaning duty for their sake this morning. But again, it was the kind of thought that freaked her out. She wasn't in a situation where being petty like that was excusable -- they were all supposed to be on the same side and, honestly, the food fight wasn't the worst of ideas. Some kind of rebellion sounded like a good one, anyway.

Noticing her uncle still sitting by herself was more than enough to drive her to head promptly over to where he was sitting. If there was anything he was good at it, it was putting things in perspective and dragging her back down to Earth. She dropped her food down at the spot across from him at the table, taking her seat with a weak and grim smile that tried to be a lot more hopeful than she was feeling after a day like this.

It took that long for her to notice the look on his face and any attempt at a smile dropped as she sank into the chair, eyebrows knitting together and forehead creasing in worry.

"What happened to you?" It had to be during the day, after all, and she hadn't noticed anything when they were together the previous night. But what could he have possibly done to himself over the course of the morning? Or maybe the real question was -- what could the soldiers have done to him?

[human_sponge]

It had really only been a matter of time until Claire found him, though the fact that they had been separated by age last shift and would be again next shift meant that Peter was relieved when the girl walked up. He wasn't really in the position to go wandering around the cafeteria in search of her, after all, and even the bulletin board would be a challenge right now.

The fact that she was both confused and concerned was more or less expected; it looked like she had even put aside getting herself some food to come talk to him first. He couldn't blame her if it turned out she had to eat that gunk, though, and so he'd leave that alone for now. He could barely eat his own meal, even if it was the good stuff.

Abandoning his knife and fork, Peter let out a sigh. "I headed up to the pharmacy with two kids last night to get some supplies and we ran into some trouble on the way. I ended up with some burns on my back for my trouble." And he'd been confined to a wheelchair that he'd likely be stuck in unless he was able to borrow Claire's powers tonight.

He knew that she was likely to lecture him, but he got the feeling she'd forget all about that when he explained what he'd gone through last night. Bringing up the lack of pain was probably going to seriously bother the girl, but she would end up more upset if he neglected to tell her. He just wanted to deliver the news slowly.

[autophoenix]

The longer he continued his explanation, the more confused her expression grew, and she wound up shaking her head quickly at her inability to reconcile how his story could possibly have transpired in conjunction with her own experience. Her forehead creased as she tried to find some solution, brows knitting together and eyes clenching shut at the sheer lack of understanding.

"Headed to the pharmacy --" she repeated, evidently not following. "Peter, what are you talking about?" It just wasn't possible. That's what it came down to. There was no way, abilities or no abilities, that Peter could be in two places at once. "You couldn't have gone with them, you were with me the whole night. I came and found you." Her eyes opened and she just shook her head again.

It didn't add up and until she got some kind of explanation, she wasn't really gonna have it in her to focus on anything but that conundrum. Surely he had some kind of explanation for that one, like a weird astral projection power he picked up or something. Maybe he could duplicate himself. That would be kind of cool, in a gross way.

[human_sponge]

The confusion that was plain on Claire's face was enough to give Peter a bad feeling. He hadn't been talking about anything particularly complicated, after all, so there had to be something else about his story that was baffling her.

Luckily, Claire wasn't exactly the sort of person who kept things to herself, especially not when they were really bothering her. It wasn't long before she explained why she hadn't been following what he was saying, and that was enough to worry Peter in turn.

He definitely hadn't even caught sight of Claire last night, let alone spent the whole time with her. He had the burn wounds to prove what he'd been doing and where he had or hadn't been, after all, and he was sure that both Ritsuka and Albedo would be able to vouch for him as well. Which left them with a worrying question: if that hadn't been Peter, then who was it?

Still, he'd been around this place long enough to hear rumors on the bulletin board, and so Peter immediately latched onto an idea. "Claire, that wasn't me. No way. But I've heard there's a monster here who can change the way it looks, so it's possible that's what it was..." Hadn't Claire also come across some creature in the bathroom that had taken on her form? That had to be it. He didn't understand why the thing hadn't eventually attacked her, but maybe there hadn't been enough time for some reason.

It was troubling, though. They were going to need to come up with some sort of code word so that they could always be sure that they were who they claimed to be.

[autophoenix]

The idea that she could seriously mistake a monster for her uncle had Claire taken aback a little. Okay, granted, from when he was from, they hadn't seen much of each other. And they hadn't seen that much more since then, but it was enough. And she liked to think that if some monster was impersonating her, Peter would know the difference at least. You just knew with things like that, but not in this case. There was nothing. It had seemed exactly like Peter and the fact that he was acting like she'd just mistaken some creepy monster for him kinda hurt.

Not only that, but it didn't add up. If it was a monster of some kind, wouldn't it have hurt her? Or tried to. There were too many questions and none of them synced up with the things she'd seen and what she knew had been real. Or, had known, anyway. So, there was a little bit of a lilt in her voice that gave way to the fact that it bothered her, but aside from that, she kept it level and instead investigative -- suspicious, really. Obviously something wasn't right, but it had at least been a good imitation.

"Peter, I think I know the difference between a monster and my uncle," she defended automatically. "It didn't just look like you, okay? He -- it -- whatever it was, it was you. It talked like you, not in some creepy warped voice like that mirror monster did. It knew things you know." Okay … more like responded in the ways she expected him too. Most of it had admittedly been her blurting things out and apologizing and …

Oh, man. She was gonna have to go through that all over again wasn't she? Her pride reflexively winced at the thought. On the bright side, though, it could wait until after they solved this mystery.

"Unless this Aguilar guy has a Peter clone running around as part of his menagerie of monsters, it just doesn't make sense. I'm telling you, I know the difference, okay? It's not like I'd just automatically assume it was you just because --" Just because it looked exactly like him and who the hell else could it be? The mirror monster hadn't even come to mind. Shapeshifting was so far out of her spectrum of believability that it seemed stupid to think a monster might be capable of it, and truth be told, she felt a little stupid for not considering it.

She slouched a little in defeat, though there was still a stubborn frown on her face that didn't want to admit she should have been more careful. Sylar, a monster -- all the more reason to never make the mistake of hauling off to Peter's room again. "It knew about Sylar. It knew to warn me that he was in your hallway." There was an edge of 'which, by the way, you never told me' to her tone but she kept that implied at least.

[human_sponge]

It was no real surprise that Claire was reacting badly to what he'd just said. Peter also would have felt pretty weird if he'd spent a night with someone only to be told that it wasn't them after all. It was violating in a weird way, because she had probably put trust into this fake him -- and Claire wasn't the sort of person who seemed to trust all that easily.

He had to admit to himself that while he had heard of monsters who could take on the form of friends, he'd never interacted with one himself. Which was definitely a good thing; if he'd come across a fake Nathan or something like that, it would have gotten him into a world of trouble. But since he hadn't ever encountered one, he couldn't vouch for how realistic they were or how much they knew.

Claire seemed pretty sure that it had to be more than a mere monster, though, and so Peter was going to do his best to hear her out. That answer had been the simplest one, but if it couldn't be true then they would just have to work out other options.

All in all, it was creepy to hear that there was something out there that could imitate him so well in the first place, so part of him was hoping that it wasn't an actual entity. Still, his hopes would only get him so far, and in reality they needed to get to the bottom of this in case it happened again. The last thing Peter wanted was for something with his face to harm his niece because they hadn't been careful enough.

"Look, Claire, don't blame yourself for not knowing or anything. I'm betting it was pretty convincing, so there's no point in beating yourself up about it. If it wasn't a monster, though, then what are you thinking? Could it have been a hallucination?" Not that he was accusing her of being nuts, but this place had a way of making you see or experience things without them actually happening. He'd been convinced that he was dying one night only to wake up perfectly fine, so it definitely seemed possible.

"Something weird was going on with me last night, too. I wasn't seeing things, but still... maybe that's what happened to you." The whole hint about Sylar was totally missed for the moment, mainly because Peter was still unsettled that he had a double that was possibly still out there.

[autophoenix]

Oh, great. He'd stepped up from thinking she'd confused some decaying mirror freak monster for him to thinking she was totally psychotic and seeing things. That was a real improvement. As hard as she was trying to root herself to some kind of rationality and reassure herself that he was just trying to find an answer for what it could have been, she couldn't help the way her blood heated as she unavoidably grew offended at what she perceived as an accusation.

At least she managed to keep the frustration mostly out of her expression. Mostly. Her jaw still clenched and her lower lip still quivered furiously. The wiser part of her told her that she should probably be prying to find out what was so weird that had happened to Peter to get him this injured and put him in a wheelchair, but she was kind of distracted by how deep she was letting his doubt dig.

"I don't know what it was, but I'm not crazy and I wasn't seeing things. I wasn't just walking around talking to thin air, okay. I touched it. It was real." She wasn't going to acknowledge the fact that the hallucination up in the experiments hall had felt real, too, or that Pete's had felt real, or that it was totally possible. Because why would Landel or Aguilar or whoever was supposed to be in charge now make her hallucinate a perfectly normal(-ish) night? It hadn't attacked her, it hadn't left her emotional state in shambles, it was just …

It didn't add up. And she wasn't going to budge on it, either.

"I'm not blaming myself, I'm telling you that something seriously messed up has to be going on for you to seriously have some kind of freaky doppelganger hanging around." The frustration had her still fuming but she forced it down, her cheeks puffing a bit from the effort, in order to let that segue her into what she knew she needed to ask. "What happened to you that was so weird?" Even if it wasn't hallucination doppelganger monster freak material, it could at least maybe shed some light on the situation.

[human_sponge]

It would have been much easier to talk with Claire about this sort of thing if she didn't take every comment he made personally. When he'd suggested it was a hallucination, he wasn't trying to imply that she was crazy. The two of them had suffered the effects of one together, for goodness sake; he'd thought she'd understand. But she was digging her heels in about it being more than that, even if she didn't quite know what that meant.

What it left them with was one big question mark and a whole lot of uncertainty. Not a monster, not a vision -- what else was there? Peter knew that the existence of powers meant that there were a lot of options, but that just made it harder to narrow down. Either way, they weren't just going to come up with the answer, especially when Claire was being difficult. He decided to drop it.

"All right," he said, lifting his hands up in defeat and then immediately regretting it when it caused his back to twinge in heated pain. He lowered his head to hide his wince and then quickly recovered. "If there really is a doppelganger running around, then we need to be more careful. We've got to have some sort of code word so that we can identify each other." It sounded ridiculous, like something out of a movie, and yet it was the best way to be sure. He was going to leave it to Claire to come up with something, since a teenager was more likely to find the prospect exciting.

Though then Claire asked the question that he'd more or less invited her to ask, which meant it was time to spill. Peter wasn't sure what the best way to explain was, but he'd just be honest. "Well, I ended up like this," he started with a small gesture to the wheelchair, "because for some reason, I couldn't feel any pain last night." He realized what he was saying and what it would mean to Claire, but she needed to know. "It made me kind of careless, since I was traveling with two kids and I wanted to keep them safe. We were attacked by a brainwashed patient."

He was definitely paying for it now, but he still thought he'd done the right thing. None of them had come out of that fight completely unscathed (except for Albedo, maybe), but at least he'd taken the brunt of the injuries.

[autophoenix]

If he thought she missed the grimace, he was sorely mistaken. He was just lucky the last thing she wanted to do right now was worry over him. She was busy being distracted by her own indignation still, even if Peter was passing it off. Him passing it off came off as just dismissing her, with the mood she was in now, and while she let it slide, she wasn't happy about it either.

Luckily, the idea of a code word was distracting her a little. It sounded stupid -- okay, she was probably biased about that for obvious reasons, but she was positive it would sound stupid even if she weren't just being a grouch. They weren't in some ridiculous spy movie, this was real life and they had real issues and the fact that they had spare Peters running around was just the cherry on top of a miserable situation.

But pessimism wasn't going to help anyone. So, she tried to be compliant.

"You seriously want me to quiz you on a code word every time I see you. You don't think that'll get, you know, annoying?" And unnecessary. And humiliating and a constant reminder of her failure to even realize it wasn't him. That one was definitely digging deep. But she stopped her train of questions when she processed the information about him not feeling pain.

Her first thought was that it wasn't just her anymore. Maybe somehow by taking her ability in Peter had lost his capabilities to feel pain too and it was another freak part of her mutated genes. But, then he said it was just for last night, implying that he could feel it again. While she wasn't exactly sure how he'd test something like that during the day -- maybe he stubbed his toe, for all she knew -- she couldn't help feeling a little deflated. So much for that theory, because as far as she knew, she didn't have an easier time in the daylight.

"Like me," she clarified, the confusion returning, though her frustrated mood had definitely put a harsher, more doubtful edge on it. "And it just … happened? But you couldn't heal, that doesn't make any sense." Because somehow, not being able to feel pain just because she could heal made more? As if.

[human_sponge]

So much for teenagers thinking that sort of thing would be cool. Then again, Claire was just in a bad mood overall. Peter wondered if it had been triggered by this whole doppelganger situation or if she'd just been having a bad morning; maybe it was a mix of both. Either way, he didn't think that dismissing the idea just because it seemed silly or over-the-top was good enough reason.

"Maybe it will be annoying, but it's better than you running into this double again and getting hurt this time." For all they knew, whatever it was that had taken on his form was just waiting for the perfect moment, and there was no way that Claire could let her guard down now. If it had really seemed that much like him, then they couldn't assume that she'd be able to tell the difference without having a fail-safe -- hence, code word.

"I just want to make sure you stay safe," he reinforced, leaning forward slightly and ignoring the pain that came with the movement. "If that means code words, then let's do it." And he wasn't going to accept some argument about how she didn't need to worry about being safe because she could heal. There were all sorts of other ways that an attack of that nature could be damaging, after all.

As for what he'd revealed about the night before, it was hard to tell how Claire felt about it. Maybe that was because she didn't quite know herself. It might have made sense if they'd been near each other when it had happened or if he'd gotten the healing with it, but maybe it was just a matter of his powers acting without his permission again. Either way, it was clearly his problem and not hers, and yet it obviously applied to her in one way or another.

"Yeah, I didn't even realize what was going on until I got into that fight," he explained. "But I didn't heal, that's for sure." And boy, was he paying for it now.

[autophoenix]

Given that her frustration was more guilt-driven than anything else (seriously, how had she missed that it wasn't Peter?), the honest edge of concern in Peter's voice and the way that he boiled it down to being worried about her made her bluster deflate. Her shoulders sank a little and her stubborn look relaxed into a slight frown, partially because as a genuine emotional response to what he was saying, and partially because she wasn't sure how he could manage to be so well-balanced all the time and not let her moodiness get to him.

Not to say that the bad mood wasn't still there, of course, but it was hard to be bitchy about it when he was trying to push through it and do the hero thing like always. She mirrored his movement with a kind of begrudging exasperation, folding her arms on the table and leaning forward. This felt stupid. Everything about this felt stupid, and it was made worse by the fact that it was because of her inability to tell Peter from Clone #584 or whatever apart.

"I'll come by your room tonight and heal you and we can see if it's better or something then. Maybe Aguilar was just messing with you or something, or maybe it's something worse. We can find out one way or the other." A sigh followed and her lips pursed into a narrow, unhappy line. "And we can try out this code word thing. I guess. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. But it's still stupid."

All right, so maybe she was being just slightly petulant, but who could blame her. It was kind of a mood-crusher to realize that she sucked this much.

[human_sponge]

It seemed like the fact that he was acting levelheaded was helping to calm Claire down, which was something Peter was going to keep in mind for any future discussions. The argument they'd gotten into yesterday had been a waste of energy as far as he was concerned, which was why he was making sure to keep his cool now. More than that, he really didn't have it in him to start fighting when he was putting half of his attention into the pain he was in. It was good that he was being distracted, but he couldn't completely put it out of his mind either.

He was relieved when Claire suggested that she could come and heal him tonight before he even had to ask. He knew that she would do just about anything for him, but that didn't mean that he didn't appreciate it. He quirked a smile. "Thanks a lot. It feels kind of weird that I'm the nurse and yet you're the one healing me, but..." Powers sort of turned everything upside-down, didn't they? Still, he wished he could do more. It felt like he was always one step behind in this place, and his injuries meant that he wouldn't be able to head up to the experiment rooms tonight.

Even if Claire was still calling it stupid, she was at least asking for suggestions for the code word, which was a step in the right direction. Still, it was hard to think of something that was both obscure and yet had some meaning. He realized it could be something completely random, but it seemed like it'd be easier to remember if it at least held some importance.

"Anyway, is there a name or a phrase from your childhood that would work, maybe?" Peter even considered using Claire's dog's name, but that seemed too well-known.

[autophoenix]

"It's more like you're healing yourself, anyway." She shrugged it off. Okay, maybe it was a little of her frustration with her own ability not being able to help others that had her compartmentalizing it in her mind that way, but still. It was true. She wasn't healing him, he was doing all the work. Borrowing her ability, healing himself. Her power wasn't cool enough to involve healing other people. Just herself.

And with that, she dismissed the subject. It'd get dealt with, but they should hammer out the whole code word thing for future use now anyway. Especially since she'd be heading down the same path to the same exact hallway tonight and run the risk of the same stupid situation happening. This time, she wouldn't make the same mistake. But the double had known enough of how to act like Peter that Claire couldn't help wondering. Was it really going to make a difference? She tried to push the thoughts of pessimism from her mind but it was kind of hard to ignore.

"I don't know, though, uh … I mean, there's Mr. Muggles?" She purses her lips, looking thoughtful for a long moment then straightening up. "Wait," she reached into the front of her uniform shirt and fished out the dog tags, holding hers up for Peter to see. "We have these. I mean, maybe not forever, but for now shouldn't it work?"

[human_sponge]

Regardless of what Claire said, Peter didn't see it that way at all. It was true that it was his own ability that allowed him to use Claire's, but he wouldn't even be able to do that if she wasn't around, if she wasn't there at his side. She mattered just as much as he did -- if not more so, considering what her blood could do. Then again, it was pretty common for kids her age to be down on themselves, especially considering how she was already in a bad mood for a number of other reasons.

Peter smiled to himself when Claire came out with the same idea that he'd briefly thought of. Still, he thought it was something that was too easy to guess -- it wasn't like the name of the Bennet family dog was a secret by any means.

The dog tags, on the other hand -- that might work. Peter carefully grabbed for his own, taking in the number there. "These are personalized and I'm guessing each number is unique. There's no way that a copy of me would have it, right?" Unless this whole thing had been fabricated by the institute, in which case they could give his clone an identical pair...

This was all just too ridiculous. Peter sighed, resisting the urge to lean back in his wheelchair. That would not end well. "How about... a nickname you used to be called, something that no one would ever know. Or just an uncommon word that you think is cool."

[autophoenix]

She could see the enthusiasm for the dogtag idea whittling out of Peter's expression and she slowly deflated as she processed the issues with it herself. Right. They could fabricate the rest of Peter, apparently, and they'd made the tags. They could probably make an extra set. It left her with a nagging curiosity of what they'd been trying to do by sending something that looked just like him after her without hurting her -- project 2911 maybe? But what kind of experiment was it?

A headache. That was for sure. However, his next suggestion considered her mood to lighten just slightly at a memory. Something she hadn't thought about the whole time she was in the institute since she'd been busy being pissed at her father for partnering up with Sylar of all people. A quiet kind of smile appeared on her face briefly but disappeared as quickly as it had come and she cleared her throat, looking up from the table at Peter's face.

"Clairebear. My dad calls me that all the time. What about you? Did you and Nathan ever have a pet or something? A favorite … I don't know. Football team or something?"