Broken Connections, Chapter Six: Parted But Not Sundered
Down the stairs Peter went. The hard, concrete stairwell full of even harder metal stairs bounced sound around in a cacophony. He could hear a din like that caused by a stampede of booted feet on the stairs and maybe the noises of a fight, but he didn't know if it was above him, below, or both. He just kept going.
He burst out on the ground floor to find himself behind an advancing line of guards who were already in combat with the specials. Peter barely had time to register the layout before a uniformed woman yelled at him and grabbed his arm, trying to twist it behind him and take him down. He swung with her motion and hit her solidly in the chest with the heel of his free hand. She staggered, losing her grip, but she hadn't had the wind driven out of her like he'd hoped - the protective vest she was wearing was doing its job too well. She reached for her baton. He jumped on her in turn, wresting the weapon from her and giving her a vicious elbow across the face.
Peter scrambled to his feet before reinforcements could join her, dodging past three people struggling with Aviv and four with Pearl. There was a smear of blood across the floor and a splatter on the wall beside him, but both Pearl and Aviv were alive and fighting. A taser dry-fired on Aviv, but Peter's target was the man who had Claire on the ground. He smacked him hard with the stick across the man's armored upper back, avoiding the tempting but potentially lethal head or neck shot. The man let go immediately and looked up in surprise. Claire gave him a solid kick in the side as Peter snatched the taser from the man's hand. Peter gave it a quick glance. It hadn't been discharged yet. He backed up to where Claire was getting to her feet. Peter glanced around for a better assessment.
Most of the guards were occupied with Aviv or Pearl. The one he'd hit and Claire had kicked was getting up. Amanda stood to the side, literally steaming - apparently being doused with water upstairs had slowed the return of her ability. If Aviv or Pearl had their abilities back, it didn't matter, because they were subdued. For all intents and purposes, they were out of the fight. Three other guards formed up in the few seconds he took to figure out what was going on. Amanda's hands ignited and they paused.
Several things flashed through Peter's head at once - those two people dead at the airport; the fact that none of these guards had guns, all had tasers which were agonizing but relatively nonlethal; there were effective safety protocols at work in their holding area even at the risk of prisoners escaping; the blood on the wall was not from any of the specials; Amanda was about to burn these people to death just like she'd done the night before; and the world was not a safer place with any of these three free in it. He turned the taser on Amanda and shot her in the back. He threw down the device while everyone gaped and it buzzed. He grabbed Claire by the arm and they ran out the door.
A fun thing about regeneration he'd never had the opportunity to experience before was how long it allowed a person to run. He didn't get tired. He didn't get winded. His legs propelled him along at top speed without fail or falter. It was really cool. Claire kept right up with him. It wasn't flying and it was conspicuous as hell, but it let them cover several zig-zagging blocks fairly fast. A taxi and a wad of cash later and they were putting even more distance between them and their pursuers. A few miles later, Peter had the driver drop them off at a random Thai restaurant he saw ahead of them.
"What do we do now?" Claire asked after the taxi had left them in the parking lot next to the eatery.
Peter shook his head. "I was here to get you. I … I lost Sylar." He looked back in the direction of downtown, where Building 26 stood. If he had to trade one for the other … he had the sinking feeling that he'd ended up with the wrong one.
"What happened to him - on the stairs?"
"He stayed. He stayed to hold them long enough for us to get away."
"I've seen him do that before," Claire said quietly. At Peter's look, she shrugged. "Sacrifice himself. He's so weird." With real heat in her voice, she said, "and inconsistent!" She looked at Peter searchingly, "You trust him?"
Do I ever. Peter rolled his eyes at how extreme his emotions had gotten, so fast. His whole world was upside down. But given the state his world had been lately, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. "Yeah, it's … a pretty strange situation. I don't know how to explain it."
"Okay. Whatever." She shook her head, accepting it easier than he'd expected. "So what now? I don't want to call my dad to have him bail me out like I'm some kid!"
"Huh." Peter leaned against the wall, trying to gather his thoughts. Honestly, calling Noah had been his second thought. His first had been to call Sylar, but he didn't know the man's number. Or even if he had a cell phone. Or even his name, Peter realized. Sure, Peter would call him Sylar, but Peter assumed he had a legal name he used for paperwork, like what was on his driver's license or birth certificate. But … what if he doesn't have those either? Bad driver, was easily convinced he was my brother, needs help … what if he has real identity problems? Am I equipped to help someone like that?
Claire was losing it in her own way. "I can't go back to the reporters. I can't go back to the carnival. I can't go back to school. What can I do?!"
Peter looked at her blankly, processing that his job, his apartment, his everything was probably off-limits, too.
"That was the point of all of this, Peter!" she said shrilly into his face. "So we wouldn't be hiding anymore! So we'd be accepted, have a home, have a chance to be normal, even if for us 'normal' means regenerating or seeing the future or flying. We have to have lives! They've taken our lives from us!"
He listened to her vent, with her saying things he agreed with.
She turned angry at his passive observation, asking, "I'm serious, Peter. What do we do?"
"We've got to stop acting like we're special."
"What?"
It all came together for him in his head. "We've got to stop acting like we're special cases. We want to be normal? Then let's go through the normal channels."
"The normal channels?" Claire looked hopeful, but confused. "What do you mean?"
"They can't hold us, Claire. There are laws. You're not a terrorist no matter what they say. What have you done wrong? What have you done that allows them to incarcerate you?" She blinked at him without an answer. "That's my point!" Peter stabbed a finger in the direction of Building 26. "There are laws and they're not being applied to us. We're not above the law, but we're not below it, either. We're people - citizens," he nodded and Claire nodded slowly back at him. "Let's make the system work for us for a change."
"Okay. I think Sylar's a lost cause, though."
"Why? I'd like to see the evidence they have against him."
"The president?" Claire said, leaning forward with brows raised incredulously like she couldn't believe Peter was missing that.
"When I talked to Hanson this morning, that was what she wanted to get out of you. They don't know what happened. Not for real. Not for certain. They don't have enough information to lock people up, Claire."
"Sylar's killed a lot more people than that."
"I know," Peter said, voice glum on that. "But no matter how I feel about him right now, he's not the only one in danger."
Claire blinked at him a few times. "Okay, Peter … I'm going to blurt something out right now that sounds really ridiculous and you might find really offensive. But … are you seriously telling me you have 'feelings' for Sylar?"
Peter covered his face with both hands as he leaned against the brick side of the building.
"Oh my God," Claire said quietly when he didn't rush to deny it.
He dropped his hands. "Please don't hate me, Claire. We really need to-"
"No, no! That's …" She trailed off laughing. "Are you sure he didn't mind control you or something?"
"I'm sure." Actually, not really, but he wasn't about to consider it. He liked the way he felt. As long as Sylar returned them, Peter didn't care where his feelings came from.
"Okay. Well, I stabbed him in the eye with a pencil when he tried to tell me we were soul mates day before yesterday, or whenever it was. I guess he told you the same thing and you bought it, then?"
Peter frowned at her. The idea that just a couple days ago, Sylar had been trying to convince Claire to be his life partner … "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Sylar's desperate." She made a 'don't you get that?' face at him, like Sylar's need made him an instant pariah and Peter was a fool for thinking differently. Then she thought better of it. "Okay, well, I'm sorry. That's really not … I mean, that's not ..." Her voice softened and she deflated, looking down. "That's kind of sad."
"He's been going to people looking for help," Peter said quietly, summing up the real meaning of what had happened between Sylar and Claire recently.
Claire nodded, raising her eyes to Peter. "I told him to get rid of all his abilities. I guess he couldn't?"
Peter sighed. "No. He tried, though. He went to Matt Parkman, asked him for help, and Matt tried to imprison him in a mind-trap forever. Sylar killed him." He wondered if Matt's life would have been saved if Claire had tried to help Sylar instead of telling him to do the impossible and divorce himself from his powers.
"Sylar … oh." She looked sad. "Matt - he was the telepath, right?"
Peter nodded. "I found Sylar there. I'd had a dream he'd save everyone at the carnival. And … he did."
"What … did you do anything about Matt?" She shrugged helplessly. "I mean, I don't know what you could do."
"We cleaned him up, and his house."
"'We'?"
"Yeah," Peter looked determined. "I made Sylar help. I told him what to do and he did it."
She blinked at him. "And he didn't kill you, too?"
"I was … it was a little scary there at first, yeah." He smiled slightly. He'd been terrified in the beginning. "Then he followed me to the carnival and saved people. I told him not to kill anyone again and … he said he'd do that."
"It's that simple?"
"Nothing's that simple, Claire. But the common denominator to succeeding at something is trying. He's trying to be better. You said earlier he'd tried before. One of these times, he's going to succeed. And I'm going to be there for him when he does." He said the last firmly.
Claire blinked at him again. "Okay. Then … you said he wasn't the only one. Let's get to work on that. How do we start?"
"Let's go back to that Director Hanson and find out where we stand. No, wait, let's get an attorney, then have the attorney talk to Hanson. If we're legal, then we can talk to her." Peter stared at the ground for a moment. "Did you know my father had a law firm?"
"No." When he looked up at her, Claire said, "I really don't know much about your side of my family."
"There's a lot I don't know either, or that I thought I knew and I've found out I was wrong. I think we can get train tickets to New York just using cash. Let's get some Thai food to go and I'll tell you what I know on the way."
XXX
"Do you always carry this much cash?" Claire asked as they boarded the train.
Peter laughed. "Homeland Security froze my accounts a few months ago when they put me on the terrorist list. I don't know if that's sorted or not, but I've stayed away from banks since then. I just got paid Friday."
"If we're going to pay lawyers, aren't we going to need more money than you're carrying?"
"Yes. My father's law partners specialized in laundering money. I'm sure they'll be able to help." As they took their seats, he said, "One of the things we've got to address is what the government is doing that interferes with specials living normal lives. It's been hell for me to keep a job and being an EMT is actually pretty flexible. I can understand why the carnival was so attractive, or even the Company. It's a paycheck, in addition to being a place where you're accepted for what you are."
"Did you know that Elle came to my house once when he ability was malfunctioning, because she said she didn't know anyone else who might help her?" Claire shook her head in disbelief.
"We need to change that. Samuel wouldn't have had that sort of grip over his people if they had options. He came to me, but I had a job. I have a family. I didn't want to join the carnival. I had a life of my own. That's what let me say no to him."
Claire nodded. "There was definitely a creepy vibe going on there."
"It's a cult thing," Peter confirmed. "People put up with abuse when they don't see any better options. And you end up with the predators preying on everyone and no one being able to do anything about it."
"Like how the government is preying on us right now."
"Exactly."
"Well," Claire said, settling herself. "Tell me about your family."
He laughed at the change in subject. "I'll tell you what, if you want to talk about predators preying on people, the Petrellis are a good topic." He rolled his eyes. "You know about my mother's side as well as I do, because when she told all of us at Coyote Sands, that was the first I knew of it. Before that, she'd always been vague. I mean, I knew the Shaw name because she'd given it to me for the family tree I made for school, but I didn't know anyone from that side - no names, no history, nothing. She said she'd lost touch with everyone after she left home. I always thought she'd run away or there had been a disaster, which I guess is true, but not the way I thought."
He continued, "On the paternal side, we have Uncle Tim whom you haven't met, and Arthur, my dad, who's probably dead now."
"Probably?"
Peter shrugged helplessly. "I thought he was dead before, too. He was in the military, which is where he met Daniel Linderman and some of the others. When they'd come over to the house, I always thought they were just friends from way back. I never knew they had abilities. I didn't know abilities existed until … about the time I met you." He smiled at her.
"So you had a normal childhood, then?"
"I guess. Normal enough. I was rich - you've seen the house. With a twelve year gap between Nathan and me, I was kind of an only child. I was pretty lonely. The earliest I can remember, Nathan had a car and usually girlfriends. He made time for me, but you know, he was making time for me. I always felt like I was competing with everything else in his life for his attention and maybe I was too grateful for the crumbs I got." Peter scratched at the back of his fingers. "It wasn't like there was anyone else around. My mom was there some, but my dad almost never was. It's hard to ask a lot of questions of people when they aren't even there."
Claire frowned. "Peter, that sounds awful." She sounded torn between being authentically sympathetic and making light of it.
He laughed and gave her a little shove. They both laughed.
She said, "I always had Lyle and my mom. I couldn't get away from Lyle. Oh my God, it is so annoying to have a little brother sometimes! But Mom was always there."
"And Noah?"
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, yeah, he'd be home for like a month or a few weeks, but then he'd be back on the road, 'selling paper'."
"Uh-huh," Peter nodded.
"It's funny," she said, "Sylar listed out all these reasons why he and I should be together, but they were stupid reasons."
"What were they?"
"That we were both adopted, basically. And that our main father figures were killers."
Peter waited, but she didn't go on. "That's not much."
"I know!" she nodded. "I told him that. He didn't …" She shook her head now. "Like I said, he was desperate. He thought I would be his connection to the normal world. I wasn't."
"No, that's me," Peter said quietly.
She regarded him for a long moment. "And you're okay with that?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "I'm … finding that I'm … a little more than okay with that." He couldn't stop the stupid smile from creeping on his face as he thought about how he felt about Sylar. He started laughing because it was really ridiculous. Just the day before, he'd walked in on the guy at a murder scene, but now … well. All was forgiven, because Peter was in so deep he couldn't see out.
Claire gave him another long look, then smiled and shook her head. "That's crazy, Peter. Is it insensitive for me to bring up Nathan?"
"No, it's not." He shook his head. "I don't- I don't even know, Claire. He wants to make it work; I want to make it work; and at the end of the day, isn't that all it takes?"
"Uh, no. Earth to Peter - it takes a little more than that."
"Yeah, okay, it takes a little more than that. But he and I have a lot more in common than 'adopted'. He's backing me up, Claire. He's trying to be there for me."
"You miss Nathan a lot, don't you?"
"I'm not thinking he's Nathan," Peter bristled. "That is nowhere in this."
"Okay, okay," she said, offering her hands in surrender. "I was just saying that you've lost someone recently who … who you looked up to and expected to be there for you - the guy you went to when you needed help. He's gone. So maybe that's making someone else who will do that for you look more attractive than they might be otherwise."
He frowned at her. "Claire? You know the best thing you can do for me in this?"
"What?"
"Do just what you're talking about - be there for me. And I'll be here for you. We've got something big to get through here and I need your help."
She smiled softly. "Okay. I've got your back." Her smile grew a little wider. "At least until Sylar takes over the job."