Day 51: Women's Showers [Fourth Shift]

[windstwilight]

It was a start, for better or worse. It was an attempt to do better, even if she was doubtful of success. Well. With that one, she'd just have to stick close, is all! The last thing Nigredo needed was to be left alone

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[autophoenix]

In truth, Claire couldn't bring herself to be surprised that they were thrown into group showers. For security reasons alone, it made the most sense, but that didn't stop her from being apprehensive when the nurses led her in. She tried her best to simply ignore the fact and delayed her disrobing as long as possible in hopes that it would become less crowded by the time she was actually naked. Overall, she did a pretty good job of acting casual about it, but her movements were notably awkward as she tried in vain to cover herself from the few other girls who were still in the showers.

Talk about invasive. It didn't matter that there was a group shower in the school locker room back home, or that some of the cheerleaders had even used it before, because she hadn't and she didn't enjoy being forced into it. But, the option to wait and shower when she went home wasn't there, so she forced herself through it.

Distracting herself with her thoughts seemed like a good method. While she scrubbed the shampoo into her hair, she thought back on the million questions she'd been left with since lunch with Peter.

Timelines. It was a big concept and Claire wasn't sure she had the qualifications to even pretend she knew anything about it. Hiro Nakamura's ability wasn't one she envied -- teleporting through time would be more of a headache than anything, but she sighed and tried to wrap her head around it while the hot water soothed her scalp.

So, Peter was from just after the explosion, and Claire was from more or less five months later. Elle seemed to know a whole lot more than Peter, and it even explained why she'd had that deja vu look when she was talking to Claire. She had to be some amount of time in the future. But, where did that leave Sylar? An involuntary, terrified shiver ran up her spine and she cranked the faucet hotter, ignorant to the fact that it was leaving her skin red and sensitive now. Better to attribute it to the water being cold than admit he still scared her.

This whole timeline business did explain why he was so quick to drop the good agent act as soon as her dad was out of the picture. It explained why he hadn't chosen to continue taunting her about his dramatic rescue or the fact that Noah had failed her again.

… And it explained why he didn't remember what was inside her head. The conditioner bottle clattered to the ground, slipping out of her hand at the realization. He didn't have her ability. He wasn't taunting her, he was being serious. He could only imagine what was up there, because he hadn't seen it yet.

Which meant he'd still want to.

On the one hand, this made her want to avoid him as fully as possible. It was stupid to, having acknowledged this, go running back in the same direction of someone who wanted to slice her head open and leave her awake on some table to feel all of it -- or, not feel, really. But, if he still wanted to cut her head open, it meant he didn't have her ability yet.

It meant she could kill him. Easily.

Regardless, she knew one thing for certain. Peter couldn't know. By her tally, she and Elle were the only ones who should know -- or, well, and Sylar now, because she'd been stupid enough to bark it at him on her way out of the movie -- that she'd gone through it. Peter didn't need to. She wasn't prepared to have that conversation with him again by any means.

With a final, determined sigh, she let the water rinse the remaining suds off of her and stepped out of the shower to dry herself off and get redressed. Now it was time to figure out just how close he was to immortality before he got here, and where he'd been since Kirby Plaza. She pulled on the itchy shirt and, reinvigorated with the desire to cut Sylar's head open and see how he liked it, obediently followed the nurse out of the bathroom.

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