Hesitating as the intercom crackled back to life, Claire looked up, listening intently. It was clear that whoever the intended audience of Landel's little demonstration was, it wasn't her and Peter. Still. Audience or not, the comments dug deep with Claire. The heroism, the determination, the revenge. Everything she'd thrown herself into lately was under the title of 'hero,' acting like that gave her some kind of exception. She wanted to 'save people' but only in the way that meant hurting him like he'd hurt her. Morally gray. Just like her father.
It took a moment for her eyes to go back into focus as her mind drifted into some other place, fixated on this, disturbed by how accurate it was even though with the widespread delivery of the message, it was about as accurate and personal as a horoscope. She forced herself back to reality, though she still appeared detached and thoughtful, and looked back at her uncle.
"What?" It took her a moment to register what he'd said -- to catch up. She hadn't been entirely cognizant of it. Or, rather, she hadn't been cognizant of it at all. But, her brain caught up and she shook her head quickly, rattling herself a bit and trying to shake the fogginess of distraction. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I think we're all getting tired of it. Not that he seems to care …"
Her eyes fixed on Peter's pillowcase -- the less they address the intercom announcement, the easier it would be to pretend it hadn't rattled her specifically.
"Better not to let it get to us, right?" She raised her eyebrows expectantly and got up, walking over to grab Bella's desk chair and move it in front of where Peter sat on her bed, taking a seat in it, holding her arm out. "The best thing we can do is keep doing what we're doing."
It quickly became obvious that Claire was bothered by something, but it was hard to tell if it was the whole issue with Edward and Bella, the fact that she couldn't feel pain, or the words that Landel had just spoken over the intercom. It easily could have been a mix of all three, and it just showed how this place gave them way too many things to deal with on any given day (or night).
But while the cause of Claire's behavior wasn't clear, her need to be distracted definitely was. Peter watched as she moved over to him, grabbing for a syringe and preparing it as she seated herself. It felt strange to be going into nurse mode with a family member (most of his other family hadn't wanted to ask him for any medical help because they'd been so bothered by the nurse aspect), but Claire was so straightforward that he only hesitated for a second or two.
Grasping her arm as gently as he could, he injected her with the needle and started to slowly extract her blood. "We can do a couple of these, I guess. I'm just hoping that the healing effect will last even if it's a few days old." It was a bit unsanitary if he thought about it too hard, but it wasn't as if they had mini-fridges installed in their rooms for times like this.
"Anyway," he continued, because he couldn't completely let everything that had happened earlier drop, "are you feeling better now that you're back here?" Though there was a good chance that the room itself reminded Claire of Bella, Peter was trying to be optimistic.
The mental image drawn up by Peter's mention of the blood being a few days old made Claire's stomach turn. Eww. Would it even really inject when it had started to congeal like that? Well. He was the one with medical training, after all, so he could worry about that. Her job was done as soon as it was out of her arm. The prick was small enough that she didn't even feel the needle when it went in until the coldness ran up her arm as the blood drained out. Oh.
"Hopefully. If not, well, you know where to find me." She shrugged with the shoulder that wouldn't jerk the needle around and just stared down at it, watching as the vile slowly filled. Kind of morbid. When he asked if she was okay, though, green eyes flickered back up towards him. He was really going to bring that up? There was hesitance in her expression before she worked a smile up.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I just needed some air, you know? Get away from …" From them, honestly. But, she chose to rephrase. "From all of that stuff. Thanks for getting us out of there." That was honest, at least. She immensely appreciated Peter understanding that she just couldn't be around Bella then. The fact that she could once more trust him to care about her well-being like that and take the cues her behavior would give off was reassuring.
"And … I'm sorry," after a beat, she continued. "For dragging you into that stuff."
While Claire said that, it wasn't like Peter would be able to know where she was at all times. He was certain there would come a time when he would need her blood due to an emergency and she wouldn't be around, but that was just the reality of the situation. He couldn't expect her to always be at his side, since she had other things she probably wanted to do with her nights. That bugged him, but he knew it shouldn't, and so he pushed it away.
The only thing that he could do was stock up as much as he could (without overdoing it and possibly giving someone bad blood), and so with the first syringe full, he carefully set it aside and grabbed a second. The process was repeated, clinically but still with care. This wasn't just a piece of meat he was sticking a needle into, after all; it was his niece.
Luckily, he was accustomed enough to this process that he could easily multitask. Even though Claire didn't say that she needed to get away from Edward and Bella specifically, Peter knew what she meant. She didn't need to voice it, and he only nodded in understanding.
"I get it. Sometimes you just need to distance yourself, get some space to breath. And seriously, don't worry about it. You didn't know it was going to turn into what it did, and we were able to test your blood out, so that made it worth it, right?" Peter didn't want Claire to have to look back on tonight with nothing but regrets.
All things considered, the way Claire wasn't even taking notice to the needle was making it pretty clear that while Peter might be trying to do it with all the love and care in the world, as far as she was concerned, she was a piece of meat. Her blood could help people, and if she had to be the harvestee in that equation to make sure it happened, it wasn't a big deal. She'd let him stock up on regen blood until she didn't have any left -- it'd just replenish, anyway.
Instead, she had to fidget awkwardly and shift in her seat almost constantly, because not paying any mind to the task at hand meant paying more mind to Peter's words -- which were digging into a topic she'd wanted to leave far behind. She wondered if she had any more life shaking updates like not being able to feel pain that she could share with him to distract him, but nothing came to mind outside of the obvious cause of that disconnect, which would only make things worse.
"Definitely worth it," she responded with a firm nod. "I mean, I'd rather figure out a way out of here, but I guess figuring out a way to better deal with being in here is the next best thing."
She had a point about escape being the bigger issue, but in Peter's experience that was practically a dead end. Not that he had given up on getting out, but he was trying to focus on what he was actually good at. If he kept people healthy, then they could continue to work on escape plans, right? He wanted to do something that worked, something with results, and thus far the paramedic gig seemed to be the best option for that.
For now, anyway. He was sure he'd change his mind to something else at some point, because it was hard to stay satisfied with himself in a place like this. It was constantly putting them down, pointing out their flaws, and making them feel insignificant. Apparently Claire wasn't safe from those things, either.
"I know, but... one step at a time, right?" He finished with the syringe, pulling it out of her arm and setting it with the first. "I think that's good for now. Did you want to go ahead and get some rest now, or...?" He didn't want to make his niece stay up later than she wanted to just because he was here. Honestly, he could probably do with some extra sleep himself, but sleeping in Bella's bed was a bit more awkward than just sitting on it.
"One step at a time," she murmured her agreement, though there was some definite discouragement to her tone. She didn't like going one step at a time -- she liked throwing herself in headfirst and getting results to match that kind of gung-ho behavior. She liked seeing that she'd managed to do something important, not just make the issues more tolerable, but solve them. That wasn't going to happen in Landel's, though, and on her fourth night in the institute, that was finally starting to sink in. It was disappointing to realize the beginnings of stockholm syndrome onset that early, but even more disappointing to realize that she could recognize them and still not do much about it.
When he removed the needle from her arm, she worked her elbow back and forth a little to restore the blood flow, but she didn't immediately stand -- the last thing she needed was to get up and run the risk of getting dizzy, which would mean Peter realizing that her slowed healing was taking a greater toll on her than she was ready to admit. With the way she treated her body like a renewable resource, it was nothing but bad news, even if her ability wasn't removed entirely.
"Not yet," she responded firmly. "I had a few questions …" The first of which was the most painful to spell out. She took a minute to chew the inside of her cheek before she could force it past her lips. "I just -- You know, this pain thing, I was just wondering. When you absorb my ability. Do you still feel it?"
If he absorbed her ability exactly, he'd have to absorb however progressed it was. If it was just some natural part of her ability stopping her from feeling it, Peter wouldn't feel it while he was around her either. But otherwise … well, the alternative would mean admitting how screwed up she'd become, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. It was impossible to even pretend to hide the hopeful look on her face.
It was obvious that Claire wasn't so happy with accepting that method of dealing with this place, and Peter couldn't really blame her; he wasn't either. He clenched his jaw, knowing that this slow and steady pace was hardly characteristic of him. He was the one who'd bought a ticket to Odessa on a whim, after all. He didn't really like to chip away at a problem; tearing it down in one go was more his style.
But that was pretty much impossible here, and he'd had a much longer time to realize that. Having people he was close to involved (or one, at least) also meant that he had to watch himself. Claire would follow his example, after all, so he had to set the right one.
Peter was open to the girl asking whatever questions she had, but he had been expecting something general rather than the deeply personal one that he got. He blinked, watching her for a moment as he tried to formulate a reply. "Well, I haven't really gotten the chance to use your power much lately," he pointed out. "Not since... you lost that ability, anyway. I don't think." There was no way to tactfully talk about this, but he was pretty sure Claire preferred directness.
"We could test it if you really wanted," he suggested. Peter wasn't really eager to start intentionally hurting himself, but if it was for Claire then he'd do it. Because it seemed like this was something he needed to know, and he wanted to help her however he could.
While Claire may have made a hobby of hurting herself, she wasn't entirely sure it was an eccentricity that her uncle shared, so when he suggested testing his pain threshold, she immediately shook her head. No way. Not only did she not want to see him hurt period, but suggesting that he do it just so she could figure it out … that was probably on the crazier side of the spectrum. Besides, chances were that he'd wind up hurt around her sooner or later, and they could find out then.
"No, you -- No, we don't need to. I was just … curious, I guess." The shake of her head, at first very determined, slowly wore down until finally she just hung her head, letting that sink in. At least it was better than a flat out 'yes.' She could go for a little longer pretending she wasn't that much of a freak. Maybe it was better to delay it for that reason alone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot about it. I should have realized you probably wouldn't know," she added with a halfhearted chuckle. She reached up to rub her eyes with the excuse of tiredness, leaning back in her seat to fix him with another thoughtful look.
"Just one more question then. I mean, you've been here a while, right?" He'd said something close to two weeks when she first got here, hadn't he? "Do you know what Sylar can still do? With the limitations and everything. Just how dangerous can he be?" It was hard to word the question in a way that didn't speak volumes to her desire to go after him, hurt him, but she liked to think she kept her tone defensive enough for that.
It was typical for Claire to be so willing to hurt herself in front of an audience but to be resistant to him doing the same. Still, Peter chose not to argue the point. It wasn't something that was completely urgent, so it looked like his niece figured she'd find out eventually -- which, unfortunately, was probably true. Thus far they had only run into things that messed with them mentally (and he definitely didn't want to think on that for too long), but it was only a matter of time until they came across something that wanted to make them dinner.
"No, you don't have to worry about it," he told her with a shake of his head as he allowed himself to get more comfortable on the bed. He didn't know why Claire hadn't moved back to her own, but it was easier for them to talk when she was sitting closer, and so he didn't ask about it. "If I do find out, I'll let you know what it's like." Until then, they'd just have to be in the dark about it.
When she moved on to a different topic, Peter went along with it, nodding in response to her first question. While there were definitely people who had been around longer than him, he'd certainly made his mark here. He had to figure that most people could at least say he was a familiar face at this point, even if he hadn't met all of them. That was an impossible feat, even for him.
Her question was a good one, because it was something she should know. Peter just wished he had more information. "Honestly, I'm not too sure. What I do know is that he's pretty weak. The times we've fought, it's mainly come to physical blows." Except for the night that they'd both been brainwashed, but once again, he didn't really want to tell Claire about that if he could avoid it. "I'm pretty sure he can still take powers, but it's limited in some way. He's got Elle's, for instance." He didn't like that he'd been forced to bring that up, but it was the one example he had.
"Don't think that that makes him an easy target, though," he warned her. "Sylar's still a strong guy, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to win." Especially when a power was involved, and with Claire, a very important one was. "Let me handle him, all right?" Even if he hadn't taken Sylar down yet, he also had been holding his own. They were kind of at a stalemate at this point, but that didn't mean Peter was going to back down.
Physical blows, huh? If it came to that and Claire actually had a weapon, she might stand a chance. Without one, she knew it'd be too easy for Sylar to overpower her, and it wasn't like she had her new bff the taser with her in Landel's. But, she did know that if she got the jump on him, it might level things a little bit. If not, well. She'd get better. She always did.
Not that she was planning to go in halfcocked and unprepared, but she wasn't going to listen to Peter's warning to stay away, that was for sure. After what Sylar had done to her, regardless of how nice he was trying to pretend he was now that he had what he wanted from her, she couldn't just leave well enough alone. She didn't have the capacity for it.
But, she wasn't going to tell Peter that. No, instead of being up front with her own intentions, she just flashed a smile that seemed to ask if he was serious.
"Peter, I'd have to be some kind of idiot to go running after a guy who wants to kill me." So, was she an idiot? Maybe. But, even she wasn't comfortable enough with her dishonesty to flat out lie to him. She wouldn't make any promises to stay safely away from him, because it was something she knew she wouldn't keep if the opportunity presented itself. Instead of letting doubt hang in the air, she quickly moved on.
"How many times have you fought, anyway?" She was at least kind enough to keep Elle from being the new topic she required. Peter's struggle with any mention of the girl was evident, and she didn't want to force him to continue talking about it if it wasn't necessary. Though, now that the name had been brought up, Claire had to wonder if she was safe tonight -- or was she running into Sylar again, like an idiot?
Even though Claire seemed to be trying to reassuring, Peter didn't buy it. Not completely, anyway. It was true that it was a stupid move to make, but that didn't mean that that would stop her. It hadn't stopped him, and the two of them unfortunately seemed to share the trait of being really reckless at times. (Or a lot of the time, as the case might be.)
However, his niece was quick to turn the subject back onto him, and so Peter couldn't continue to harp on her about how important it was that she stayed as far away from Sylar as possible. Honestly, he would have thought that would be a given, but it seemed like a lot had changed about Claire in the few months that he had yet to experience in his timeline.
Still, he knew at the core that she was the same girl, and so he didn't hesitate to answer her. "Man, it's hard to keep count, and it sort of depends on what constitutes a fight. There was the time with Elle, one other time in the hallway near our rooms, plus a few others..." Once again, the incident in the courtyard was passed over. He was becoming a pro at this emission thing. "I'd say four or five times altogether?" It kind of started to blur into one big mess of sloppy fistfights in dark hallways.
"Let's just say that a shovel can come in handy and leave it at that." Of course, having access to other powers would have helped, but that had only worked when he'd been with Elle, and it clearly hadn't been enough. He hoped that Claire realized that. Elle had died at Sylar's hands here, and she could be next, if she wasn't careful.
Except that Peter refused to let that happen, but he also wondered how many times he had told himself that only for it to be a huge lie.
Truth be told, Claire was a little surprised that Peter hadn't managed to kill him over the course of four or five fights while they'd been there. It was the perfect chance, not that Peter knew it, and not that he ever would know just how lucky they were that he'd come from the time that he did, but a part of her wondered if maybe Peter was just holding back because he wasn't comfortable being responsible for it. He had always been the one saving people, after all, she had a hard time imagining him being capable of doing what had to be done when it came to Sylar. Instead, though, she told herself it was probably just with how evenly matched they were, even without the Institute's help.
"I'll be sure and keep my bat with me, then." A pause fell between them before she realized how that might be taken. Still not wanting him to think she'd be taking any initiative to seek Sylar out in the future, however distant, she rephrased with an awkward smile. "In case he finds me, I mean. Better safe than sorry." She got to her feet, moving Bella's chair back to her desk.
"Elle said that Sylar had a reason to want to kill her," she said suddenly, hesitating at the desk and resting her hands on the back of the chair with a certain degree of thoughtfulness coloring her expression as she faced away from Peter. "You don't know what that is, do you? I have a feelings he wasn't being totally honest with me, I thought maybe you might have gotten something better out of her. You know, before, maybe." Sure, she was leaving out the part of the story that Elle had given her, but considering she didn't trust Elle any further than she could throw her … Peter didn't need to hear what was probably lies, anyway.
While Peter had taken the girl's statement at face value from the start, the fact that she then went in to clarify was what made it more suspicious. It was sort of a given to carry a weapon around here, though, and maybe Claire wasn't quite aware of that yet. She had been attacked twice, but it was probably hard to make someone who could heal all that aware of the danger around them. "Yeah, you shouldn't go anywhere without it," he warned her. He just hoped that she knew how to use the bat well enough to do some real damage. Sylar was a big guy, and it was going to take a good bash on the head to knock him out.
Even though Peter had mentioned it earlier, he hadn't really been ready for Claire to bring up Elle again. More than that, he was a little shocked to hear that Elle would admit to something like that. A reason to kill her? "You mean other than her power?" he asked with a frown. There was nothing that really struck him when he thought back on their conversations, but that was probably because he hadn't gotten to know Elle that well in the first place. Which made it odd that he'd taken her death to heart the way he had, but it really wouldn't have mattered who it was; someone had died before his eyes and he hadn't been able to stop it. That was bad enough.
"I know that there was some sort of past between them, but it was pretty vague. Something about Mohinder's lab. It's kind of a blur, though, since they were just yelling at each other while throwing attacks back and forth..." Peter had been so busy just trying to get Elle away from the killer that he hadn't really been able to absorb a lot of what they'd said to each other. "One second it sounded like they might have worked together, another it was just Sylar taunting her about her dad or something."
He wished he had something more concrete than that, but maybe some of it would mean more to Claire. She was further in time than him, so it was possible.
Trying to mesh the two stories together wasn't exactly easy, especially given that Elle had told Claire that she'd pissed Sylar off long before he'd ever been Sylar. Tricking him. So, why was Sylar the one taunting her? It didn't make sense, and the more Claire tried to reconcile the two, the less sense it made. Sure wasn't sure what had happened to Elle's father to let Angela take command of the Company, but if Sylar had anything to do with it, wouldn't someone have told her? Wouldn't anyone have told her?
She didn't like the fact that she knew that the answer was no. Her own family, and they were just as inclined to keep things from her as Bella and Edward. It was no wonder she hated it. Her gaze turned downwards and she forced herself to turn back to look at him.
"Other than her power. There's no way of knowing that he won't try it again here, because apparently it's personal. Maybe something went wrong when they worked together before -- I don't know." The confusion was evident and she shook her head a little. "We'll have to figure it out if we're going to keep it from happening, though."
Trying to get answers out of either Sylar or Elle more or less sounded like it would be as hard as pulling teeth; more than that, Peter usually didn't like to speak with Sylar for longer than five minutes (if at all) and he didn't want Claire to have to, either. He frowned, glancing down at the sheets as he started to grab them into his fists and then let go in a repetitive motion while he thought.
"I tried to warn Elle, but she was pretty resistant to the idea that she'd died in the first place. Which makes sense, I guess, but she needs to be more careful." Peter got the feeling that the two of them had run into each other by now, but he wasn't entirely sure. He didn't really know how much he and Claire could do about them, though, and a small selfish part of him wondered if it was really their problem in the first place.
But a larger part of him couldn't bear to be responsible for Elle's death a second time, and so he'd do what he could. "I think we have a better chance of getting information out of Elle, though. I'll see if I can talk to her at some point." He wouldn't be looking forward to it, but he'd still give it a shot. Claire seemed on board with this now, and so he didn't want to let her down.
It took a moment for her eyes to go back into focus as her mind drifted into some other place, fixated on this, disturbed by how accurate it was even though with the widespread delivery of the message, it was about as accurate and personal as a horoscope. She forced herself back to reality, though she still appeared detached and thoughtful, and looked back at her uncle.
"What?" It took her a moment to register what he'd said -- to catch up. She hadn't been entirely cognizant of it. Or, rather, she hadn't been cognizant of it at all. But, her brain caught up and she shook her head quickly, rattling herself a bit and trying to shake the fogginess of distraction. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I think we're all getting tired of it. Not that he seems to care …"
Her eyes fixed on Peter's pillowcase -- the less they address the intercom announcement, the easier it would be to pretend it hadn't rattled her specifically.
"Better not to let it get to us, right?" She raised her eyebrows expectantly and got up, walking over to grab Bella's desk chair and move it in front of where Peter sat on her bed, taking a seat in it, holding her arm out. "The best thing we can do is keep doing what we're doing."
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But while the cause of Claire's behavior wasn't clear, her need to be distracted definitely was. Peter watched as she moved over to him, grabbing for a syringe and preparing it as she seated herself. It felt strange to be going into nurse mode with a family member (most of his other family hadn't wanted to ask him for any medical help because they'd been so bothered by the nurse aspect), but Claire was so straightforward that he only hesitated for a second or two.
Grasping her arm as gently as he could, he injected her with the needle and started to slowly extract her blood. "We can do a couple of these, I guess. I'm just hoping that the healing effect will last even if it's a few days old." It was a bit unsanitary if he thought about it too hard, but it wasn't as if they had mini-fridges installed in their rooms for times like this.
"Anyway," he continued, because he couldn't completely let everything that had happened earlier drop, "are you feeling better now that you're back here?" Though there was a good chance that the room itself reminded Claire of Bella, Peter was trying to be optimistic.
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"Hopefully. If not, well, you know where to find me." She shrugged with the shoulder that wouldn't jerk the needle around and just stared down at it, watching as the vile slowly filled. Kind of morbid. When he asked if she was okay, though, green eyes flickered back up towards him. He was really going to bring that up? There was hesitance in her expression before she worked a smile up.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I just needed some air, you know? Get away from …" From them, honestly. But, she chose to rephrase. "From all of that stuff. Thanks for getting us out of there." That was honest, at least. She immensely appreciated Peter understanding that she just couldn't be around Bella then. The fact that she could once more trust him to care about her well-being like that and take the cues her behavior would give off was reassuring.
"And … I'm sorry," after a beat, she continued. "For dragging you into that stuff."
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The only thing that he could do was stock up as much as he could (without overdoing it and possibly giving someone bad blood), and so with the first syringe full, he carefully set it aside and grabbed a second. The process was repeated, clinically but still with care. This wasn't just a piece of meat he was sticking a needle into, after all; it was his niece.
Luckily, he was accustomed enough to this process that he could easily multitask. Even though Claire didn't say that she needed to get away from Edward and Bella specifically, Peter knew what she meant. She didn't need to voice it, and he only nodded in understanding.
"I get it. Sometimes you just need to distance yourself, get some space to breath. And seriously, don't worry about it. You didn't know it was going to turn into what it did, and we were able to test your blood out, so that made it worth it, right?" Peter didn't want Claire to have to look back on tonight with nothing but regrets.
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Instead, she had to fidget awkwardly and shift in her seat almost constantly, because not paying any mind to the task at hand meant paying more mind to Peter's words -- which were digging into a topic she'd wanted to leave far behind. She wondered if she had any more life shaking updates like not being able to feel pain that she could share with him to distract him, but nothing came to mind outside of the obvious cause of that disconnect, which would only make things worse.
"Definitely worth it," she responded with a firm nod. "I mean, I'd rather figure out a way out of here, but I guess figuring out a way to better deal with being in here is the next best thing."
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For now, anyway. He was sure he'd change his mind to something else at some point, because it was hard to stay satisfied with himself in a place like this. It was constantly putting them down, pointing out their flaws, and making them feel insignificant. Apparently Claire wasn't safe from those things, either.
"I know, but... one step at a time, right?" He finished with the syringe, pulling it out of her arm and setting it with the first. "I think that's good for now. Did you want to go ahead and get some rest now, or...?" He didn't want to make his niece stay up later than she wanted to just because he was here. Honestly, he could probably do with some extra sleep himself, but sleeping in Bella's bed was a bit more awkward than just sitting on it.
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When he removed the needle from her arm, she worked her elbow back and forth a little to restore the blood flow, but she didn't immediately stand -- the last thing she needed was to get up and run the risk of getting dizzy, which would mean Peter realizing that her slowed healing was taking a greater toll on her than she was ready to admit. With the way she treated her body like a renewable resource, it was nothing but bad news, even if her ability wasn't removed entirely.
"Not yet," she responded firmly. "I had a few questions …" The first of which was the most painful to spell out. She took a minute to chew the inside of her cheek before she could force it past her lips. "I just -- You know, this pain thing, I was just wondering. When you absorb my ability. Do you still feel it?"
If he absorbed her ability exactly, he'd have to absorb however progressed it was. If it was just some natural part of her ability stopping her from feeling it, Peter wouldn't feel it while he was around her either. But otherwise … well, the alternative would mean admitting how screwed up she'd become, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. It was impossible to even pretend to hide the hopeful look on her face.
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But that was pretty much impossible here, and he'd had a much longer time to realize that. Having people he was close to involved (or one, at least) also meant that he had to watch himself. Claire would follow his example, after all, so he had to set the right one.
Peter was open to the girl asking whatever questions she had, but he had been expecting something general rather than the deeply personal one that he got. He blinked, watching her for a moment as he tried to formulate a reply. "Well, I haven't really gotten the chance to use your power much lately," he pointed out. "Not since... you lost that ability, anyway. I don't think." There was no way to tactfully talk about this, but he was pretty sure Claire preferred directness.
"We could test it if you really wanted," he suggested. Peter wasn't really eager to start intentionally hurting himself, but if it was for Claire then he'd do it. Because it seemed like this was something he needed to know, and he wanted to help her however he could.
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"No, you -- No, we don't need to. I was just … curious, I guess." The shake of her head, at first very determined, slowly wore down until finally she just hung her head, letting that sink in. At least it was better than a flat out 'yes.' She could go for a little longer pretending she wasn't that much of a freak. Maybe it was better to delay it for that reason alone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot about it. I should have realized you probably wouldn't know," she added with a halfhearted chuckle. She reached up to rub her eyes with the excuse of tiredness, leaning back in her seat to fix him with another thoughtful look.
"Just one more question then. I mean, you've been here a while, right?" He'd said something close to two weeks when she first got here, hadn't he? "Do you know what Sylar can still do? With the limitations and everything. Just how dangerous can he be?" It was hard to word the question in a way that didn't speak volumes to her desire to go after him, hurt him, but she liked to think she kept her tone defensive enough for that.
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"No, you don't have to worry about it," he told her with a shake of his head as he allowed himself to get more comfortable on the bed. He didn't know why Claire hadn't moved back to her own, but it was easier for them to talk when she was sitting closer, and so he didn't ask about it. "If I do find out, I'll let you know what it's like." Until then, they'd just have to be in the dark about it.
When she moved on to a different topic, Peter went along with it, nodding in response to her first question. While there were definitely people who had been around longer than him, he'd certainly made his mark here. He had to figure that most people could at least say he was a familiar face at this point, even if he hadn't met all of them. That was an impossible feat, even for him.
Her question was a good one, because it was something she should know. Peter just wished he had more information. "Honestly, I'm not too sure. What I do know is that he's pretty weak. The times we've fought, it's mainly come to physical blows." Except for the night that they'd both been brainwashed, but once again, he didn't really want to tell Claire about that if he could avoid it. "I'm pretty sure he can still take powers, but it's limited in some way. He's got Elle's, for instance." He didn't like that he'd been forced to bring that up, but it was the one example he had.
"Don't think that that makes him an easy target, though," he warned her. "Sylar's still a strong guy, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to win." Especially when a power was involved, and with Claire, a very important one was. "Let me handle him, all right?" Even if he hadn't taken Sylar down yet, he also had been holding his own. They were kind of at a stalemate at this point, but that didn't mean Peter was going to back down.
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Not that she was planning to go in halfcocked and unprepared, but she wasn't going to listen to Peter's warning to stay away, that was for sure. After what Sylar had done to her, regardless of how nice he was trying to pretend he was now that he had what he wanted from her, she couldn't just leave well enough alone. She didn't have the capacity for it.
But, she wasn't going to tell Peter that. No, instead of being up front with her own intentions, she just flashed a smile that seemed to ask if he was serious.
"Peter, I'd have to be some kind of idiot to go running after a guy who wants to kill me." So, was she an idiot? Maybe. But, even she wasn't comfortable enough with her dishonesty to flat out lie to him. She wouldn't make any promises to stay safely away from him, because it was something she knew she wouldn't keep if the opportunity presented itself. Instead of letting doubt hang in the air, she quickly moved on.
"How many times have you fought, anyway?" She was at least kind enough to keep Elle from being the new topic she required. Peter's struggle with any mention of the girl was evident, and she didn't want to force him to continue talking about it if it wasn't necessary. Though, now that the name had been brought up, Claire had to wonder if she was safe tonight -- or was she running into Sylar again, like an idiot?
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However, his niece was quick to turn the subject back onto him, and so Peter couldn't continue to harp on her about how important it was that she stayed as far away from Sylar as possible. Honestly, he would have thought that would be a given, but it seemed like a lot had changed about Claire in the few months that he had yet to experience in his timeline.
Still, he knew at the core that she was the same girl, and so he didn't hesitate to answer her. "Man, it's hard to keep count, and it sort of depends on what constitutes a fight. There was the time with Elle, one other time in the hallway near our rooms, plus a few others..." Once again, the incident in the courtyard was passed over. He was becoming a pro at this emission thing. "I'd say four or five times altogether?" It kind of started to blur into one big mess of sloppy fistfights in dark hallways.
"Let's just say that a shovel can come in handy and leave it at that." Of course, having access to other powers would have helped, but that had only worked when he'd been with Elle, and it clearly hadn't been enough. He hoped that Claire realized that. Elle had died at Sylar's hands here, and she could be next, if she wasn't careful.
Except that Peter refused to let that happen, but he also wondered how many times he had told himself that only for it to be a huge lie.
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"I'll be sure and keep my bat with me, then." A pause fell between them before she realized how that might be taken. Still not wanting him to think she'd be taking any initiative to seek Sylar out in the future, however distant, she rephrased with an awkward smile. "In case he finds me, I mean. Better safe than sorry." She got to her feet, moving Bella's chair back to her desk.
"Elle said that Sylar had a reason to want to kill her," she said suddenly, hesitating at the desk and resting her hands on the back of the chair with a certain degree of thoughtfulness coloring her expression as she faced away from Peter. "You don't know what that is, do you? I have a feelings he wasn't being totally honest with me, I thought maybe you might have gotten something better out of her. You know, before, maybe." Sure, she was leaving out the part of the story that Elle had given her, but considering she didn't trust Elle any further than she could throw her … Peter didn't need to hear what was probably lies, anyway.
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Even though Peter had mentioned it earlier, he hadn't really been ready for Claire to bring up Elle again. More than that, he was a little shocked to hear that Elle would admit to something like that. A reason to kill her? "You mean other than her power?" he asked with a frown. There was nothing that really struck him when he thought back on their conversations, but that was probably because he hadn't gotten to know Elle that well in the first place. Which made it odd that he'd taken her death to heart the way he had, but it really wouldn't have mattered who it was; someone had died before his eyes and he hadn't been able to stop it. That was bad enough.
"I know that there was some sort of past between them, but it was pretty vague. Something about Mohinder's lab. It's kind of a blur, though, since they were just yelling at each other while throwing attacks back and forth..." Peter had been so busy just trying to get Elle away from the killer that he hadn't really been able to absorb a lot of what they'd said to each other. "One second it sounded like they might have worked together, another it was just Sylar taunting her about her dad or something."
He wished he had something more concrete than that, but maybe some of it would mean more to Claire. She was further in time than him, so it was possible.
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She didn't like the fact that she knew that the answer was no. Her own family, and they were just as inclined to keep things from her as Bella and Edward. It was no wonder she hated it. Her gaze turned downwards and she forced herself to turn back to look at him.
"Other than her power. There's no way of knowing that he won't try it again here, because apparently it's personal. Maybe something went wrong when they worked together before -- I don't know." The confusion was evident and she shook her head a little. "We'll have to figure it out if we're going to keep it from happening, though."
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"I tried to warn Elle, but she was pretty resistant to the idea that she'd died in the first place. Which makes sense, I guess, but she needs to be more careful." Peter got the feeling that the two of them had run into each other by now, but he wasn't entirely sure. He didn't really know how much he and Claire could do about them, though, and a small selfish part of him wondered if it was really their problem in the first place.
But a larger part of him couldn't bear to be responsible for Elle's death a second time, and so he'd do what he could. "I think we have a better chance of getting information out of Elle, though. I'll see if I can talk to her at some point." He wouldn't be looking forward to it, but he'd still give it a shot. Claire seemed on board with this now, and so he didn't want to let her down.
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