The Walker Tracking System, Part Ten
I got through the perfunctory FBI interview/statement-taking session (which more or less went “How did you recognize Sylar?” “I’m pretty sure it has something to do with me watching him murder my parents when I was eight. Bit difficult to forget.” “…ah. Right.” I’m paraphrasing, of course.) and to the hospital while still everything was still in a haze. It’s weird, really, what very strong emotions do to us. Fear makes everything sharp, too loud and bright, and roots you to the spot. Happiness softens everything painful, enhances everything nice. Anger makes everything blur together in your periphery, makes every sound slightly muffled under the sound of your own heartbeat in your ears, creates a sort of fuzz over everything.
And, man, can you get jittery when you’re angry. Pent up emotions do nothing to alleviate energy levels.
So, yeah, to review: anger=fuzz.
I was still in this fuzz the second time I met Noah Bennet.
I’m not to clear on what happened between Appa and Noah, except that it involved Appa needing Claire’s blood to revive him in the end, and none of the parties involved were all too thrilled about that.
I’m also not too clear about what happened between him and his family. I know he helped them into hiding, and, thanks to my power, I knew that place to be in Arkansas, and I’d been talking to Claire via the Network for months at this point, and had gotten to know her well enough to be aware that she was currently living with one parent (mother) and a rather annoyingly antagonistic brother. No father. Not even any contact from father, except for the odd, unsigned postcard: “Glad you aren’t here.”
Whether his leaving was welcomed or not, well… it didn’t seem polite to ask.
Needless to say, Noah looked kind of stressed this time around. I can’t say I blame him- he spent all that time doing his best to try and protect his family, keep them safe, and now it turned out that to keep them safe he had to stay away from them.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a really sucky situation.
I felt for him, I really did. Right up until the point where he opened his mouth.
“Dr. Suresh? The Company needs Molly back.”
Like I was out on a loan. Sheesh, Noah, were you born that offensive or do you practice that in the mirror?
This, as you can imagine, did not go over well. Unfortunately, at that point Appa shoved me out of the room with orders to buy myself a semi-nutritious dinner from the vending machines while he and Mr. Bennet chatted.
My Appa doesn’t chat. He lectures, stalls, teaches, snarks, hypothesizes, threatens, manipulates, complains, and teases, but he does not chat.
But, I was jittery and needed things to do, so I did what he asked and went down to the vending machine and bought myself a couple of granola bars.
And ate them.
And threw away the wrappers.
And then bought a juice box, because I was thirsty.
And drank it.
And threw it away.
All in all, though, I had only managed to kill about thirty minutes. Not nearly enough time for a 'chat' with Noah to be finished.
I dallied around the hallway until the nurses started asking me where I was supposed to be, then made my way back into Dad’s hospital room. Where, of course, Noah and Appa were still in the process of threatening each other, which stopped abruptly after I walked into the room.
“Hi,” I said, awkwardly, wondering vaguely if I should go back to the vending machines, and if so, if Starbursts would count as a semi-nutritious food because they had real fruit juice in them somewhere.
“Hello,” Noah answered. Appa shot him a look, which he ignored. “I’m Mr. Bennet.’
“I remember,” I replied. “You tried to kill me when I was eight.”
Noah’s unassuming smile froze on his face, a move that gave me an idea.
“Molly Walker-Parkman-Suresh,” I said, sticking out my hand. He took it automatically. “But you can just call me the Walker Tracking System.”
He dropped my hand immediately.
“Molly!” Appa admonished.
“What?” I said defensively. “If I go back to the Company, that’s what I’ll be, right?”
“Well,” Noah began, but stopped.
“She has a point,” Appa said. “The reason you wanted to kill her that night was to keep her out of Company hands, so that she couldn’t find your family. Have things really changed all that much?”
“They probably still want Claire, don’t they,” I put in. “They want everyone.”
“Especially people with similar abilities to the ones currently harassing your Company,” Appa added.
“You work there too, Doc,” Noah said. I blinked, a little thrown- this was the first I was hearing about any continued contact my family had with the Company.
“Occasionally. To keep my family safe,” Appa replied, coming over to stand next to me.
“Notice how well that’s worked out.”
The two men glared at each other. The beeping of Dad’s heart monitor seemed to speed up in the tense silence that followed.
“If you bring me back to the Company, I’ll make sure the first thing I do is find Claire,” I blurted out finally, because it was the only thing I could think of to say that seemed like it might dissuade Noah from kidnapping me.
Noah blanched. Appa probably did too, come to think of it, but I wasn’t looking at him at the time.
“If the Company wants me to find Sylar or Adam, that’s fine. I‘d be more than happy to,” I continued.
Noah looked over at Appa.
“She can do that from home. There’s no need to take her away from her family,” he said firmly, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Just give me a phone number to call for when they change locations,” I added.
“Do you know where they are now?” Noah asked.
“Adona, Arkansas,” I answered.
“I meant Monroe, not my family,” he clarified, grimacing.
“He has a Fifth Avenue Penthouse. Number 146.”
“Now give her a number and get out,” Appa ordered.
He did just that, leaving a very awkward silence behind him.
“There’s pomegranate juice in the vending machine that isn’t entire processed,” I offered, after a time.
“No, thank you,” Appa replied, sparing a look at Dad, who was beginning to shuffle around like he always did before waking up.
That was the last time we would see Noah for a while. But it was far from the last time I would work with him.
As it were.
Before I continue with that story, however, I would like to take moment right here to issue this health warning: Do not mess with Noah Bennet’s family.
Ever.
Under any circumstances. No exceptions.
Why? Because that man makes my morally grey look like pure white.
And also? I like Claire. And Sandra. And can tolerate Lyle reasonably well. And even if I don’t exactly like Noah, I respect him a lot. So you’d have to deal with me too.
You see, if you threaten Noah Bennett’s family, you’re kinda screwed for the rest of your (probably short) life. Pretty everyone who’s done so has ended up dead, or memory wiped.
Except me.
Maybe it was because his Company needed me, and wouldn’t take kindly to my being killed. That was certainly the case at first. Maybe Dad scared him. Maybe Appa scared him.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my situation had so much in common with Claire’s. Maybe he classified killing kids- even creepy semi-mature kids like I was- as a morally dark area rather than a morally grey one.
Maybe he just understood where I was coming from. I accepted a while ago that we are uncomfortably alike.
If I had to guess, though, I’d have to say it was because that was the last and only time I threatened his family. And I made it up to him later, because after he left the room I started feeling really guilty about it, and resolved to help the Bennet family however I could.
I think it was about the time I managed to warn them of an impending Company attack (Elle had been dropping hints for weeks about that being her upcoming assignment but, of course, I only got it after she’d already left) that I actually redeemed myself to him (meaning I was no longer on his hit list).
But we only started actively working together (that is, him lending his considerable expertise to the war effort once Adam decided to start fighting more openly) after this conversation, two years after we had last met face-to-face:
Me: Hey Mr. B!
Noah: Walker, do you have any idea where I am right now?
Me: Walkmanesh. And, duh. It’s me remember?
Noah: What is so important that you had to call me in the bathroom?
Me: Well, it is probably the only place where that isn’t bugged out of all proportion…
Noah: I’m hanging up on you in ten seconds.
Me: I’m sure you’re aware that Sylar found my family again.
Noah: I got the memo. Sorry to here about Mohinder.
Me: Appa’s tougher than he looks. He’ll make it.
Noah: Look, Walker-
Me: The point is, sometime during the ensuing scuffle, I manifested a new ability.
Noah: You only have one ability.
Me: Then I discovered a new use for mine.
(beat)
Noah: Are you going to enlighten me?
(beat)
Noah: Walkmanesh?
Me: Sorry, Dad’s just- well, moving on, at the end of the day, it turns out that I can lose people as easily as I can find them.
Noah: Mohinder was always mortal, as much as it-
Me: I mean I can hide people. So that no one, nothing, can find them.
(beat)
Me: You know what this means, Mr. B? I can hide your family.
(beat)
Me: Not now, I mean, but like, in a month or so. You could all live back in your own home in Odessa and no one would be the wiser!
Noah: Are you sure you can-
Me: Absolutely.
Noah: I’m just saying-
Me: Sylar looked right at me. Not through me, at me. And asked if I had seen a girl around my age, or possibly an Indian man run by this way. And when I said no, he just walked away, completely oblivious the fact that Appa was passed out on the floor in front of him.
Noah: And you’ve tested-
Me: Well, obviously Appa’s in no shape to give me his normal battery of tests, but I’ve been hiding my Dad’s glasses for the past few days.
Noah: I take it this was successful?
Me: Very. He’s decided to get contacts when Appa wakes up.
Noah: Walkmanesh-
Me: And he will wake up.
(beat)
Noah: Wasn’t going to say otherwise.
Me: I’ll let you know when my powers are up to snuff.
Noah: You do that.
Me: Well, duh.
In case you were wondering, six weeks later, Appa woke up for more than a few minutes for the first time since being admitted. Doctors were astounded; they had been despairing of him ever waking up, let alone waking up lucid and with no discernable drop in IQ points.
A careful review of the logs would show that he’d been visited by a man and a young woman the night before, however; a pair that wasn’t Dad and me. No one could remember anything solid about them, except that they looked and acted like father and daughter, and were probably Caucasian. Possibly Hispanic. Maybe even Japanese.
Nebulous racial identity aside, however, everyone agreed that they were no one who stood out.
Except for the fact that apparently, one of them could heal people. This was taken with a sort of ‘so what?’ attitude; people with extraordinary abilities had more or less been absorbed into American culture at that point, and the staff was more put out that they hadn’t healed more people than anything else.
I didn’t say anything; I can recognize a thank-you when it’s given. Even if it was probably Claire’s idea more than Noah’s.
Although, I can’t help but selfishly wish the Noah’s gratefulness had extended to not somehow tracking me down here and trying to break and enter.
And I am so not buying the ‘I just want to talk’ line.
~*~
Link to the next part is here.