Day 51: Lunch

[sanguinario]

Edward was glad to wake up to a period of respite. While he had been conscious during breakfast, he'd requested to remain in his room for extra "sleep", which had consisted waiting until the room was vacated to ingest the vial of Venom's blood. The vampire had lost his chance last night, but that might have been for the better; this way he wasn't

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[autophoenix]

Well, that was either a really good sign, or a really bad sign. Peter had practically beelined for her, which meant either something bad had happened, or she was just lucky that he wanted to hear how things had gone as much as she'd predicted he would. Her fingers were crossed for the latter -- even if it meant inadvertently encouraging his overprotective behavior. Given last night, she was pretty confident that she could take care of herself -- and Elle, even -- so allowing him to take care of her was more in her control. It was her giving him permission to be protective, it wasn't a necessity.

As he asked the question, she looked up and around to make sure they hadn't warranted any extra attention from anyone, then smiled at Peter. The smile was very obviously tired, but it was just a little bit victorious, too. Last night had been a big success for her in a lot of ways. She'd proven herself the better agent over Elle, she'd gotten a real weapon, and she'd learned that with the right amount of force, it was possible to break open some of the doors here. Even if it was just the ones outside, that was something. It gave her hope for the file room, when she finally got the time to get there. Overall, the success of it and the relaxation of arts and crafts had helped her enough to the point where she appeared pretty casual while she regaled Peter with the story of her success.

"Good. I got the activities shed open. I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure the wooden bat I grabbed's in my room." A pause. She studied his face and then, in true Claire Bennet fashion, she laid a careful trap by making a final, offhand comment. "Elle seemed like she could use the help, so I let her come along. Apparently, she's a got a super wacko roommate or something. Hopefully this way she can knock her out if she goes for the neck or something." It was baffling how far she'd come in a day. She was a hop, skip and a jump from full-on weeping the last time she'd talked to Peter, but now she felt confident enough in her control of things -- confident enough that if Sylar gave her a hard time, he'd get acquainted with a Louisville Slugger -- that she could talk more openly about it.

Right. Sylar. She bit her lip, making a kind of 'ah' noise as she realized she'd need to tell Peter she'd run into him, too. Or, well, maybe she didn't have to. After all, he hadn't hurt her. And the last time she'd told him about running into Sylar, he'd seemed more pissed at himself for letting it happen than sympathetic that she'd been violated and terrified. She wasn't really looking for another empathy-lacking conversation with him about it, especially given that this particular run-in was a lot less severe.

Yeah, maybe it'd be better if Peter didn't know. He'd only get more paranoid. More protective. And, in the process, put himself in more danger. That was the last thing Claire wanted -- someone being in danger because of her.

[human_sponge]

It was small things, like the way Claire still glanced around to make sure none of the nurses were listening, that made it clear that she was still new to all of this. In all of his time here, Peter had never had a nurse take note of what he was discussing with someone. Granted, when it came to really important things, he still kept his tone down due to some weird instinct, but if they were just sharing the events of their nights with each other, then it wasn't the biggest deal.

But it didn't matter, because Claire was smiling. It wasn't the brightest smile that he'd gotten out of her, but it was still there, and that meant that she was doing a lot better than she had been yesterday. Peter wasn't sure what the reason for it was, but hopefully he'd find out soon. He tried not to think about the fact that Landel's usually took the smiles off of people's faces soon enough.

So she had accomplished what she'd set out to do. Peter nodded, managing a smile of his own so that the girl could know that she'd done well. He was giving approval without even really knowing if she needed it from him. "Yeah, if you had it on you when the night ended, then it should be stored in your room somewhere. Probably under the bed or in the closet." A bat wasn't as sturdy as a shovel, but it might suit Claire better; her upper body strength didn't really match his, after all.

But then Claire used the name Elle as if they were the best of friends and had known each other since grade school, and Peter straightened dramatically in his seat. "Elle? You saw her?" So had he, of course, but that had been different. In a way, though, this wasn't necessarily bad. It was better that they all stuck together, especially with Sylar around, and especially if there were crazy roommates involved. That just made Peter that much more thankful for Sam.

"How do you know her, anyway? I mean, how far along are you from? I only met her in this place, but that was before..." He trailed off, realizing that he was going to have to go through this all over again with Claire now. They hadn't really been able to touch upon the time issue during their talk yesterday, but now seemed to be as good a time as any.

[autophoenix]

So, it had happened to Peter, too. Things he'd grabbed during the night just getting neatly tucked away in his room. It was that kind of thing that made Claire more inclined to think they really were just testing them for something. Now it was just a matter of, well, figuring out what they were testing. Their endurance? Their survival skills? Their desire to get the hell out of there? It didn't make sense. But, Claire knew it wasn't going to make sense until she got her hands on some real information, which none of these nurses were willingly giving. The best she had so far was Landel's super creepy messages over the intercom at night, and those were just vague enough to be totally useless.

But, it didn't mean she was going to stop trying.

It wasn't exactly what she'd planned, the way he responded to her remark about Elle, but it was enough to allow her to press it further. His surprise was noted in the back of her mind -- he didn't know they knew each other. That was important. It felt weird, being so two-faced with her uncle who she'd, before, have trusted with anything, but after how he'd acted with the whole train debacle. Well, it was hard to know what she could trust him to know and what he'd freak out on her over. For now, it was definitely better to try and feel it out.

How far along was what really got her. In fact, Claire's intently invested face quickly shifted to amused bewilderment. That was weird word choice, and she couldn't help but wrinkle her brow and purse her lips at it.

"What does that even mean, how far along? I'm not pregnant, Peter." Probably not the best thing to say, because if anything, it just suggested it was a possibility at all -- which, of course, it wasn't. At all. Ever. But, Claire didn't have the experience with time travel quite yet to understand any other meaning to that kind of phrase. Instead, she chose to quickly shake it off and return her focus to the situation at hand. Elle Bishop.

"Anyway. Yeah, I saw her. I ran into her in the hallway last night. Er, pretty much literally ran into her, actually. It was weird." And involved a lot of shoving. And dreams of hair pulling. "Her and I go … way back." Okay, so maybe it was only a month or two, but that was far enough back when Claire's life had been this hectic. She continued seamlessly, completely casual. "But, how do you know her? I saw you guys talking earlier, I didn't know you were … friends, or whatever."

[human_sponge]

The look on her face, as if he'd just said something funny, took him by surprise. Peter didn't think anything he'd said had been particularly odd, but when his niece started talking about pregnancy, his mind almost shut down for a second. What was she...? Okay, maybe the phrasing had been a little weird, but that was no reason for her to start talking about that. Nathan did not need a grandchild, and Peter was perfectly capable of being mortified on his brother's behalf.

Except that the fact that he had to do that in Nathan's place just made his mood take a turn from disturbed to depressed. While he knew that his brother was relatively safe, that was in the context of thinking that he was Harrison Campbell, which was enough to drive Peter nuts all on its own.

Claire didn't really give him time to explain before she started explaining a bit more about Elle. Claire was clearly from pretty far into the future, then, if she had already known Elle for a while. She didn't look significantly older, though, so it couldn't be too far ahead, either. It made sense that they'd run into each other, seeing how there was only one block of rooms for female patients, but that wasn't really the point here.

"Well, like I said, I met her here. She insists that we've met, but that has to be in the future for me. Which is... what I meant by that question, by the way. What's the last thing you remember before coming here? Because I'm pretty sure I won't know a thing about it." That seemed to be a pattern for Peter, and he dragged a hand through his hair in a small act of frustration. He was pretty much always the furthest behind, and he didn't know why.

"For me, I'd just taken Nathan to the hospital." Peter wanted to leave it at that, but he wasn't sure if it was specific enough. Who knew what had happened since then? "You know, after the explosion." And that was when his tone became little more than a whisper. That wasn't the sort of thing he wanted anyone overhearing; he hadn't told a soul here about it, even if he'd gotten close with Sam a few times. But Claire knew, and the fact that he could actually talk to her about it was almost a relief.

It might be ancient history for her, but that didn't really matter. She'd been there.

[autophoenix]

At first, taking Nathan to the hospital seemed the obvious answer. Even if she'd seen him since then, it hadn't been that long before that he'd been in New York keeping an eye on Nathan while Sylar …

Claire swallowed hard, looking down at her plate and lowering a fry that she'd been about to eat. Suddenly, she wasn't hungry anymore. At all. The more she thought on it though, the more she realized just how much had happened since then. And then, he said what would explain it all. The explosion. It felt like ages ago -- between their move to Costa Verde, the Company's pursuit and Sylar's … well. And Sylar, it seemed like it had been years when really, it was only a few months' time. Hard as she tried, Claire couldn't keep the shock out of her expression. For the first time, her voice raised a little.

"The explosion?!" Her voice dropped immediately as she noticed she'd hissed that a little too loudly. "Peter, that was --" She paused to tally, then shook her head. "That was months ago. I got grabbed right after I," watched Steven Canfield pull himself into a vortex? Heard my dad try to off Sylar by turning another man into a murderer? Got backseat parenting from Sylar of all people? Claire's expression soured and she just sighed. "After I helped my dad pick up some guy who escaped from the Company."

It was definitely better not to go into detail about how well that job had gone. On the bright side, at least she wasn't Elle.

"The Haitian must have messed with your head or something, I just saw you like a week ago. The train? You really don't …" Despite her hopes, she knew. He didn't remember. It wasn't like this was her first rodeo. It wasn't even her fourth. Suddenly, her good mood, all that pride she'd felt, crumbled away like it had never been there to begin with. Biting her lip, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to deal with it. This wasn't the first time she'd had to handle people not remembering, she could do it. At least it was only a few months. At least he hadn't been cleaned out like Brody. That was what she had to focus on.

"If that's -- Peter, you have to listen to me. Don't listen to what Elle says. You can't trust her. Whatever she says, you can't believe it. She works for the Company, she's -- " A pained expression flickered across her face as she remembered. No matter how angry she was with Noah, nothing was going to lessen the pain of thinking he was dead. "She's a liar, and she tried to kill my boyfriend and my dad." Okay. So, technically Mohinder had shot her dad, but that wasn't the important part. The important part was that Elle was the whole reason they'd gotten into that situation in the first place and she was partially responsible.

Plus, falling out of the sky had really hurt. Though, now, in hindsight, Claire wouldn't really mind the pain. In fact, she could really go for getting zapped out of the sky. Too and she knew that it wouldn't do anything for her anymore. It didn't stop her from pleading with Peter not to trust her, though.

[human_sponge]

Oh no. With that sort of reaction, Peter could only assume that there was a whole lot he'd missed out on -- or rather, that he hadn't yet experienced. Good, bad, whatever it was, he was going to have to catch up, if Claire was willing to be the bearer of that news. There was probably a lot to tell, and he couldn't really blame her if she was worried about punching holes into the space-time continuum or whatever.

He hadn't really wanted her to say that word in a raised voice (he almost flinched), but she seemed to be realize soon after that that wasn't a good idea.

So it had been months. Not a year, so this could have been worse. Still, a lot could happen in that amount of time, and the fact that he was totally clueless was mildly frustrating. He didn't like being in the dark like this, when everyone else had already met and had a history and he knew none of it. Claire's answer about what she remembered last meant nothing to him, since her father seemed to always be getting involved in this or that. That Claire had helped seemed a little odd, but that was between her and her dad.

It always came back to the Haitian, and Peter gave a quick shake of his head. "No, I don't remember, but... I'm not sure if it's even that. Landel can mess with time like he's Hiro Nakamura. I might just be from that time, just like you're from yours. It isn't necessarily memory loss." Besides, if the Haitian was involved, Peter was pretty sure he would have seen him around by now. It probably wasn't that hard for Landel to pick up a memory eraser from somewhere -- or maybe he even had the power himself. It didn't really matter what was causing it; the important part was that it was happening with a certain frequency.

But he could see that Claire was disappointed either way. He didn't know what they'd been through, either together or apart. Maybe they'd become closer over those few months, but he just had no idea. It had to be hard from her end, too, and he tried to remember that. He just hoped that she realized that regardless of time period, he was still Peter.

That was when the girl started to talk about Elle, though, and Peter raised an eyebrow as he took in all of the information. He'd already been pretty sure of the stuff about the Company, but a confirmation was good. Peter had no clue when Claire had gotten herself a boyfriend (why shouldn't she, though? She couldn't toss away a normal life just because of her ability), but the fact that Elle was out to hurt her definitely struck a chord with him.

"I kind of got the feeling that she was on the wrong side, but... I don't know, Claire. I feel like she might need my help. I think she's got a lot of problems she needs to sort through." All of that stuff about her dad still stuck out to him. "Besides, she... when she was here before, Sylar killed her. I don't even know how she's back now." Well, he had a few ideas, but it was still the last thing he would have expected. In a way, it was a good thing that Elle didn't remember. No one needed to know what something like that felt like.

[autophoenix]

Hiro Nakamura. She'd never met him, but she knew enough to have some idea of what that entailed, and she didn't like the idea of anyone with Hiro's powers being in control of this institute. It was hard to trust anyone with that power; she wasn't even sure she was comfortable with the idea of Hiro having it, let alone some super creepy doctor. Her expression became steadily more grim at this, though there was a kind of confusion that showed her lack of full understanding. Overall, Claire was a pretty smart girl, but when time and space got thrown in … she was pretty much useless.

It was the kind of thing that rather than discuss, she internalized. She'd figure it out on her own later, when she didn't have to take all the time she could to figure out what she could from Peter. All of that messy figuring out how much she could trust him, whether or not he was even the same Peter -- or maybe whether or not she could trust him more because of that -- it was compartmentalized. When she had some privacy later, she'd figure it out.

Or maybe talk it over with Bella at dinner, if Claire was feeling especially trusting. Certainly, in her time in the Institute, she must have come across something similar, and being vague could get her a long way in getting answers without necessarily telling her what had gone on.

For now, she had to focus on this situation with Elle.

"It doesn't matter if she needs your help," she persisted venomously. It didn't occur to her that Peter might be surprised and even horrified by her cutthroat attitude. Elle didn't deserve Peter's help. Claire had been feeling generous and in a hurry, that was the only reason she'd been willing to drag her around the previous night, but to make a habit of it? She'd never make that big of a mistake. That would mean trusting Elle not to take the first chance to stab her in the back -- or shock her in the back, really.

Even if a part of her felt guilty. Felt like maybe if she hadn't let Sylar get her ability, he wouldn't still be around to hurt Elle. Someone could have actually killed him. Now, because of her, that could never happen. But, Claire pushed away all of those feelings. She pushed away the connection it formed between her and Elle -- survivors of that nightmare -- and focused on keeping Peter far, far away from her.

"What part of she's evil is so hard? She electrocuted me! And West, when we were trying to get away. My dad died because of her, and you want to help her? No! She doesn't deserve it! This place will be good to help her sort out her problems. She doesn't need us, she needs therapy." After a pause, and a little more childishly, she added. "She tried to steal my flashlight!"

[human_sponge]

The hardness in Claire's tone did shock him. Even if Elle was bad news, he wasn't used to hearing the girl talk about someone like that. He'd noticed it yesterday, too; she just seemed more severe than she should have been. Like she had been put through something terrible and was jaded as a result. But if he thought about it that way, wasn't that the case? She'd had her whole world turned upside down by a serial killer, an absent biological father, and an exploding uncle. This was partly his fault, and he only wished he knew what had made it worse.

Granted, if Claire was being this judgmental of Elle, then that had to mean that he needed to take her words to heart. It would be stupid of him to brush them off when he had already seen the signs of the other girl being more than met the eye. She hadn't always done the best job of hiding it, anyway. But despite all that, they were all stuck in this place together, and their powers were the one thing they had in common. Didn't it make sense to band together to at least get out of here? They could worry about the Company and all that stuff later.

When Claire started talking about how she and West (that must have been the boyfriend) had gotten electrocuted, Peter had been ready to argue back. He'd gotten shocked too, after all, and it hurt, but... she was simplifying it. Elle had something to prove to her own father, and Peter got the feeling that Claire could understand something like that. In reference to both Mr. Bennet and Nathan.

But then she was suddenly talking about her father being dead and that took it to a whole new level. Peter felt his back straighten in his seat as he stared at the girl. "He died?" he asked with a deep frown. Why hadn't she mentioned that in the first place? Was that why she seemed so different now?

But no, wait, she had said that the last thing she'd done was help Mr. Bennet with something. Peter sighed and shook his head to himself. "It wasn't permanent, was it? Not that that... makes what she did any worse, but... it seems like people are coming back from the dead more and more lately." Elle had come back herself, after all. That didn't absolve her of killing Claire's father, though. That sort of thing got close to putting her on the same level as Sylar.

The difference was that Peter didn't think she was necessarily doing it for herself, whereas he knew that Sylar was. Maybe Claire was right; maybe the girl did need therapy. But she wasn't going to get much of that here. The doctors weren't particularly helpful, and they saw them too infrequently.

[autophoenix]

The focus on her dad actually got her to deflate some. When she wasn't spitting with rage over Sylar and Elle and the Company and … all of it, it was a lot easier to get through to her. It was a lot easier to let that mask drop away and get a shot at the real, scared, hurt Claire Bennet. Because, that was the fact of the matter. No matter how angry she was with Noah, it came down to how he'd hurt her, and it showed in her bitter, vulnerably evasive gaze.

"He's fine," she muttered, shaking her head and breathing a sigh with her words. "They … gave him some of my blood." And now he was working for the Company and using her as a scapegoat and partnered with Sylar of all people.

She wanted to scream. Beg Peter to know why Angela would ever think that was a good idea. Beg to know why she couldn't just have a normal family and a normal life and why all of these things would never stop, but he wouldn't understand. It had been the past month that had really been the worst, and he couldn't even comprehend it because he wasn't there.

So, she kept it to herself.

"But, it's not a question of whether or not he's okay now," she regained some of her previous ferocity in an attempt to defensively shove away that vulnerable moment. It was an attempt to shut herself off more. "Elle was responsible. She's not a good person, Peter, and she doesn't deserve our help." Your help, of course, was the non-verbal indicator of her expression. Elle had already gotten Claire's help out of sheer annoyance, but Claire wasn't about to let Peter get himself involved in that. Especially not when it would mean throwing himself in Sylar's path, apparently.

"Trust me, Peter. It doesn't matter what Sylar did to her last time, once he's got something from you, he's not interested anymore. That's the least of her problems." It was strange how she was almost more bitter because of that.

Aren't you gonna kill me? And he had just walked out. Blown her off like it was just another day in the office. Like he hadn't fractured a piece of her. Like he hadn't taken the most important part of her. Like she hadn't just been responsible for making their biggest problem immortal. She didn't matter anymore, because he had what he wanted. Now, instead, she got him flipping back and forth between backseat parenting and threats during King Kong. Elle could handle that. She didn't need Peter to protect her from being Sylar's toy, which was, in Claire's experience, the safe assumption to make of what happened after he got someone's power and they showed up, still alive.

[human_sponge]

So it was back to her blood again. While Peter was glad that Claire had been able to make sure that her father didn't die for good, he couldn't begin to imagine how traumatizing it had been for her to witness. He knew how scared he'd been when he'd held his brother's charred, limp body in his arms and rushed into that hospital, for one thing. Even though he'd been assured that Nathan had made it through all of that okay, the memory was still jarring.

At the same time, he couldn't help going back to that idea of using Claire's blood to cure people here. It was something they would need to organize and test, but at least he had remembered that he'd gotten some syringes that they could use for it. He wasn't sure if tonight was the night for that, though -- it would require some bulletin coordination, since they needed to find someone who was wounded and willing to go along with an experiment that might not even work.

Claire wasn't letting this issue with Elle drop, though. Peter couldn't blame her, if Elle had really done all that, and he didn't have much of a reason to not believe her. They were family, after all, and he knew that Claire was a good person. Even when she was acting hurt and angry like she was now, it was for a good reason. It was because she didn't want him to get hurt.

Besides, she had a pretty good point there. If Sylar already had Elle's electricity, then there was no reason for him to kill her again. He almost always killed for a reason; even Peter could acknowledge that. At the same time, though, Sylar wasn't above killing someone if they got in the way of what he wanted. "If she tries to go for revenge, though, it could just happen all over again," he pointed out. "I... can't just look the other way. I watched her die before, Claire. I can't let that happen again."

It wasn't like he was going to keep his eye on Elle constantly or anything. He couldn't do that with Claire or Sylar, so he definitely couldn't manage it with her either. But at the same time, he wasn't going to ignore her if she got herself into trouble. She was someone from "home," in one way or another, and that meant that she was worth keeping up with. He wasn't going to be as open with her anymore, but--

He just hoped that Claire wouldn't take it personally. He didn't want to argue with his niece when their time together was already so limited.

[autophoenix]

As much as she hated to admit it and as much as she wanted to argue and scream and throw a tantrum, she had to concede that she wouldn't be able to watch Elle die, either. If she had the chance, if she was the only one who could help … She sighed in a way that indicated her concession and just went back to her food for a minute, looking very unhappy.

Leave it to Peter to be the hero and make her feel bad for all of her grudge-holding. For all the heroics she'd tried to pull lately, he was still the better of the two of them at it. It was a work in progress, though, and she'd get there. She just needed to listen to Peter, let him help, and help where she could. He was just about the only one who got that kind of high opinion with Claire anymore.

"So, we'll keep her from trying to get revenge. Hopefully she's not stupid enough to go for that anyway." Well. That wasn't giving herself very much credit, considering she planned to do the exact same thing. There was a thoughtful pause, and she gave a kind of masked smirk and an acknowledging nod. "It's not like she's indestructible." But, that was the only indicator she was giving of that, and she decided it was best to quickly move on before Peter realized why she'd said it. Not that he could possibly know -- if the last thing he knew was the explosion, he had no idea what Sylar had done, and it was better that way. He wouldn't need to know how sad and broken it had left her. He didn't need to know her hero had failed.

"Happy? I'm not saying I'm gonna just … let her die if I can help, but it's not like I'm going out of my way to help that …" Bitch was on the tip of her tongue, but this was Peter. She wrestled with her words for a moment and finally, her lips twitched and she decided to take another approach at the sentence entirely. "She's not getting any help from me unless it's a last resort." The look on her face very plainly stated that it was the end of the discussion on that.

"You, on the other hand …" She looked suddenly empathetic -- concerned, even. "Are you okay?" While she may not have spent excessive time with her uncle yet, she knew enough about him to know that it wasn't good for him to watch Sylar's … process. Elle being dead for most of it probably didn't help cases, because it meant someone he couldn't save. Claire understood that feeling well enough, and she looked grim as she thought of Steven Canfield and the family he left behind. The what ifs ate her up inside every time she thought about it.

[human_sponge]

While Peter didn't necessarily approve of the way Claire phrased it, he did agree: he was crossing his fingers that Elle had learned her lesson about Sylar and didn't have some crazy idea in her head that this time, she would win. It didn't work that way with Sylar. There was a reason that he had killed who knew how many people; his track record kind of spoke for itself. Peter knew that hadn't stopped him from tracking the man down, and he'd died for his efforts. But with Claire here now, he had to worry even less.

Not that he could get reckless and expect her to always be there for him to absorb her ability. In fact, he would rather Claire was as far away as possible when he went after Sylar, so in the end he couldn't rely too much on the power of healing blood. Unless he carried some around in a syringe or something, but he was getting ahead of himself. He still didn't know if that would work.

In any case, it looked like they could meet in the middle when it came to the topic of Elle. Peter caught it when Claire almost slipped and said something that would have gotten her mouth washed out with soap a few years back. He really didn't mind if she used bad language (she had good reason to a lot of the time), but the fact that she thought to watch her mouth around him was endearing in its own way. He wondered if she would have behaved the same way around Nathan.

Dammit, why the hell wasn't he here? Claire was. He was. But Nathan was still out there, even though he would have hated to know what was being done to him. Peter's jaw tensed for a moment, but then he pushed it all aside. He could spend all of his day being angry about what had happened to his brother, but that wasn't going to get him very far.

"Okay," he agreed. "I'm not saying you've got to be best friends with her or anything. I'm just letting you know that if push comes to shove, I'm going to help her out." And that was only if things got really bad, like they had the time before. He was going to make himself open to Elle in one way or another, especially since it seemed like he was the only person here who she had. Claire obviously had a grudge, and Sylar was Sylar, so... he needed to be the better person here and offer a hand.

Luckily, they were slowly moving away from that subject. Unfortunately, the conversation had moved onto him. He managed a small smile, but it was obviously just for show. There wasn't all that much to be happy about these days. "I'm fine," he said. "Last night was pretty run of the mill for me. I got some helpful medical supplies, and that's about all. Oh, except that... there was this weird thing toward the end where I stopped being able to understand the person I was with." If Claire had been with Elle last night, then she probably hadn't been exposed to that bit of confusion, which was for the best. The less trouble his niece was put through, the better.

[autophoenix]

It took a lot of self restraint for Claire not to push the Elle issue. To be petulant and demanding and selfish. But, she managed to let it die with a lot of help from her french fries, because every time she dared open her mouth to challenge it, she took the opportunity to stuff a french fry in and let Peter keep talking instead. Things were better that way for everyone involved. With any luck, she'd just be able to avoid Elle until they found a way out.

The translation trouble was something Stefan had mentioned earlier but not something Claire had given much thought to yet. She was a little surprised Peter even bothered mentioning it; didn't he have more experience with Hiro Nakamura than her? He should be used to that kind of thing by now. But, then she realized the oddest part of his statement. Stopped being able to understand. The realization washed over her in a slow wave and she dropped a fry back to her plate, sitting back some, considering.

Peter was just lucky he'd found enough things to mention to get her off the topic of his well-being. She knew not to believe that fine, she'd given that same 'fine' enough times to know what it was. Instead of being able to push it, though, she was stuck focusing on this silly curse of Babel crap and medical supplies. Stupid.

"A guy I met this morning mentioned something like that. He said he ran into someone who kept … speaking Chinese or something." Japanese. But, Claire didn't really care enough for the details to pay attention to which was which at the moment. "But, you're … you're saying the person you were with was speaking English before?" So, maybe she sounded a lot less intelligent letting her thought process come spilling out of her mouth, but Peter would understand. She shook her head, as if to put that problem on hold for now.

"Whatever, that's -- Did you find syringes or something? I need to figure out if my blood is going to do any of us any good here. If it can bring my dad back, I think a lot of people could really use it." Like Bella, whose hands were probably still achey from those glass shards they'd used. But, considering the damage they'd done to that monster, it was well worth it.

And that was probably only the tip of the iceberg -- her and Bella were pretty competent at handling things, at least in Claire's eyes. Everyone in the institute couldn't be that prepared for the weird things crawling around it.

[human_sponge]

Watching Claire pack down those fries just reminded Peter that he had his own meal to focus on. Getting into the whole issue with Elle had pretty much distracted him from eating, but now he picked up his burger and took another bite, wishing that he hadn't let it get cold. The fries would probably taste even worse, unless he drowned them in ketchup.

Luckily, his niece was clever enough to pick up on the language thing without him having to spell it out, and he nodded. "Exactly. I've spoken with this kid a few times since he's one of the healers who's doing the paramedic thing, and he's always spoken perfect English. But the intercom did something weird last night and suddenly it was like I was talking on the phone with Hiro again." It almost made him miss the time traveler. He honestly hadn't gotten to interact with him that much, but his exuberance was contagious, and Peter could do with a bit of positive energy right about now.

"It seems like everything is back to normal now, though," he remarked with a shrug. He hadn't heard anything other than English being spoken around him today, but it did make him consider that some other patients had to be hearing all Japanese or all Spanish or whatever it was. It was kind of mindblowing if he thought about it too hard. "I guess Landel was trying to keep the radio announcements from getting through." Which only made him more intent to carry one with him from now on. The head doctor couldn't block everything.

But then it was back to the blood, and Peter was glad to see that Claire was taking that a little more seriously. He still felt bad for having to use her, but at least it would make her feel like she was being helpful, and honestly, he didn't have much of a choice. His own blood might only hold up around her, and he really didn't want to hurt his head trying to work out the details there. He wanted to think that if he was around her when he extracted the blood, then it would keep its healing properties, but he could never know with this place.

"Yeah, I actually grabbed some on the night when the doors were all crazy. It'd just slipped my mind." He wasn't going to blame himself for that too much, since he'd been pretty distracted by getting attacked by a demon, for one thing. "We've got to find someone who will let us test them, though. Did you already have a plan for tonight?"

[autophoenix]

Okay, as far as the craziest things Claire had heard lately, Landel being responsible for the communications issue ranked up there with the fact that Sylar was even alive after Kirby Plaza. The fact that it disturbed her that much showed on her face as Peter continued explaining and by the time he finished, she was bursting at the seams to make her opinion known.

"Yeah, no, I don't have plans or anything --" Making plans hadn't even really occurred to her yet. Not really. But, in retrospect, it made a lot of sense, and it was probably why he'd tried to talk her into going to hunt down her bat or shovel with him the previous day. Regardless, "but don't you think it's a little bigger of a problem than 'everything's normal now' if Landel really has that kind of ability? I mean, if he can just make us unable to understand each other on a whim, then …" The confusion on her face slowly turned to baffled horror. "Then, why's he let us understand each other in the first place? It can only mean bad news for him, letting the patients talk to one another. It doesn't make --"

She had to stop and turn because all of a sudden some idiot was jumping up on the table and shouting. Claire turned quickly to look over her shoulder at the commotion and stared, torn between being impressed by the display given that it's what she wanted to do her first day but couldn't, and downright annoyed that he could be that stupid. It had taken all of five minutes' conversation to figure out that it was easier to play possum and work slowly and below the radar to get what they wanted from this place.

And him drawing attention to himself like this wasn't going to help anyone operate despite the limits being placed on them. She turned her head quickly back to Peter, gawking.

"Does this happen often?" She asked, at first in bewilderment, then added in a hiss, "someone needs to stop him!" The last thing she wanted was anyone in this place winding up dragged off by a nurse for causing a raucous. Just imagining what might happen to them was enough to convince her that she never wanted it to happen. It was about on par with what she'd imagined when her father had warned her about the Company, or when she'd first learned about her ability and considered where people might put her if they knew.

[human_sponge]

Peter couldn't help feeling a little depressed when he watched Claire try to rationalize what Landel had done with the languages. Everything she was saying was true, but what she hadn't yet come to realize was that Landel's actions were impossible to explain, and more importantly than that, what he had done last night was really only the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, it was weird that he could take away or bring back the auto-translator with a flip of the switch like that, but that hardly matched up to some of the other things he'd pulled. The zombies, for one thing (did Claire know about that?); that whole experiencing-the-death-of-a-love-one thing, for another. In fact, Claire had been there to experience that. She'd lived (or died, rather) her friend's death. Peter could still remember the way the blood had streaked across her forehead, even if his own phantom injuries had left him a bit distracted.

But Claire wouldn't remember that anymore, and he knew that it was probably better if it stayed that way. Right as he was about to speak up to explain to her that there was a lot more where that came from, though, they were interrupted by--

Oh great. Peter had thought that people had learned that this sort of approach didn't work by now, but that clearly wasn't the case. He raised an eyebrow, turning in his seat to watch the guy give his speech (he was tall enough on his own, and standing on that table was just attracting even more attention to him; even if that was clearly what he wanted, Peter couldn't help but cringe), though it wasn't long before he lost interest and turned back to Claire.

"Not often, but it has happened before. There was even a riot once." That had been right around when Peter had first arrived in this place, which had made it even more disorienting. It was actually good for Claire to get to see this, though, so that she wouldn't make an attempt of her own. There was a way out of this place; Peter refused to believe otherwise. But this wasn't it.

"Anyway," he said, going back to their earlier topic of conversation, "it doesn't stop at just languages. There's a whole lot that Landel can do, things that shouldn't even be possible. I've stopped trying to explain some of it." He'd had to resort to just assuming that it was a power he'd never heard of and leave it at that. "Anyway, you just... need to be aware of it and be careful," he warned.