Fanfiction: Heroes: All The World's A Stage
Title: All The World’s A Stage
Pairings/Characters: Sylar/Elle, Virginia
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Gabriel Gray has been a prisoner in Primatech for the past five years and he’s finally free. He promised to visit his mother, but he’s been lying to her about his life and needs to find someone to play the part of his wife.
Author’s note: Written for the “Insert/Inspiration - Sylar/Elle as Buffalo ’66’s Billy/Layla. Long story short: Sylar kidnaps Elle to take home and pose as his wife for dinner with his mother, Stockholm syndrome ensues” prompt over at the Movie Fic Meme. I’ve never seen the movie so I just took the basic idea and ran with it. Also using it for the “Parents” prompt at 100heroesfics. Thanks goes to faded_facade for the beta!
Gabriel Gray had not meant to end up in prison, and the place they had kept him in was much worse. After the murder of Brian Davis, he had been captured and shipped off to a glass cell at a place he had only heard called “The Company.” But it had been five years and he according to the agents he worked with, he was “rehabilitated.” After all, they had written down the cause of death as manslaughter, not murder, which had reduced the sentence. And after five years there, the first thing he wanted to do was visit his mother.
The only problem was his mother didn’t know where he had really been for the last five years. She thought he had started traveling before settling down in California where he had married a beautiful blonde. But he knew exactly where to find one of those. She worked for the Company and often came in to give him his medicine and his schedule of rehabilitation exercises for the day. She wore provocative outfits and usually left by shocking him in one way or another.
Her name was Elle Bishop, and she would do the trick rather nicely.
He remembered she mentioned a gas station she went to every afternoon to get herself a large Cherry Slush-O. So that’s where he went as soon as he was let out. And once he was there, he watched and waited.
It wasn’t long before she was in there, making her way straight toward the Slush-O machine. He focused on her, using his telekinesis to press against her pressure points. He smirked as she fell to the ground. He made his way over toward her and picked her up easily. “I’ll take her to the hospital,” He tells the man working at the counter. “She’s a friend of mine.” And before anyone could argue, he carried her out of the gas station.
As he secured her into the passenger seat of his car, he’s surprised by how easy everything’s gone so far.
They were about halfway to his mother, Virginia’s, place when Elle’s eyes flew open, and she struggled against the seatbelt. While she had been passed out, Gabriel had taken the liberty of handcuffing her to the door for good measure, just in case she tried anything crazy. “What the hell are you doing?” She looked up, her eyes widening. “You’re that guy they just released from the Company. I told Daddy you weren’t ready to get out yet. One of her hands flared up with electricity. “You better let me go or I’ll fry you here, I swear to God.”
“No you won’t,” Gabriel answers smoothly. “Because if you do, you’ll still be handcuffed to the door, and you won’t have enough time to grab the wheel before you drive into something and die a fiery death. And you don’t want that, do you Elle?”
She pouted before sinking down into her seat. “Yeah, I guess not. That would kind of majorly suck.” She tapped her fingers against the armrest for a few minutes before snapping her head to look up at him again. “So where exactly are you taking me anyways? I swear to God, if you try to rape me or something, I will fry you, impending car accident or not.”
He laughed a little. “You wish I wanted to rape you. You seem like the crazy sort of chick who would be into that sort of thing. But that’s not why you’re here. You see, my mother thinks I’m married. She doesn’t know I’ve been locked away for the past five years, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s never going to find out. All you need to do is pretend to be my wife I met back in California.”
Elle raised a brow. “And why the hell would I do a thing like that?”
And with that he smirked at her. His eyes twinkled with amusement and malice. “Because, if you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
“How do I know you won’t try to kill me anyways?”
“I suppose you’re just going to have to trust me.”
“So how did we meet?” Elle suddenly asked.
He blinks a little in surprise. “You’re actually going to play along?” He didn’t think she’d give in quite so easily.
“Yeah well, it seems like I don’t have much choice at the moment,” And though she would hate to admit it out loud, the whole thing did sound kind of fun. She figured she might as well see how things play out for the time being.
“We met at this small wine tasting gathering….”
~*~*~*~*~*~
About an hour later, they parked at the apartment building Gabriel’s mother lived in. They had stopped at a store beforehand to pick out an outfit Gabriel thought his mother would approve for Elle. They ended up with a long black skirt and a white button up blouse, along with some diamond earrings and matching pendant. An expensive outfit, but it wasn’t like they had paid for any of it, so the price didn’t really matter.
Gabriel paused for a moment as they stood outside the door. He brought a hand up to brush some of Elle’s hair behind her ear. She really was beautiful. “Now, remember, no cursing or coarse language. My mother is very…religious and old fashioned. And I want her to like you.”
Elle laughed a little at that. “I’m not even your real wife and you’re so desperate to get your mother’s approval. How pathetic.”
His grip slipped down to her throat and tightened, choking her a little. “Shut up. Don’t question me, just go along with it.” He let her go, glancing over her. Good, he didn’t leave any marks. He didn’t want his mother suspicious of any less than pristine activity between them. She could be a very judgmental woman, at times. “Are you ready?”
Elle shrugged her shoulders, bringing a hand up to rub her neck a little. It was sore, but she would live. “As much as I’ll ever be.” In the back of her head, she couldn’t help but wonder why her father hadn’t tried calling her or anything. Surely by now, he must have noticed she was missing? Didn’t he care? She couldn’t help but be a little bothered by that.
But she didn’t have much time to dwell on it before Gabriel brought his hand up, knocking on the door. There was a creak and then the door opened, revealing a rather frail looking woman. She smiled brightly, clasping Gabriel’s face in her hands. “My Gabriel, I knew you would come home to me, I just knew it.”
Gabriel’s mother glanced over at Elle, and for a moment there, her expression was almost unreadable. But then she grabbed one of Elle’s hand and tugged her in. “It’s so nice to meet you. Gabriel told me all about you in his letters. You must be quite the woman to have kept him away from me for five years” Her voice was a little too nice to be real, as if she secretly resented Elle. Like she was the “other woman”. Which was pretty strange considering she was Gabriel’s mother and all that.
She had a feeling that this was going to be something of a long night, to say the least.
They settled within his mother’s apartment. Elle was pretty sure she had never seen something so bizarrely creepy. So many snow globes, it was enough to make someone feel claustrophobic. Suddenly, Gabriel’s whole growing up to be a murderer and kidnapper thing made a lot of sense to her.
“So, is it true that you’ve been studying to go into teaching?” Virginia asked, breaking Elle out of her thoughts. Elle would have been surprised by the question if Gabriel hadn’t explained her “backstory” to her on the way over.
So instead she faked a big bright smile for the older woman. “That’s right, I just love children.” In reality, she couldn’t stand them. They were loud and noisy, and most of the time, when she was around them, she wanted to zap them until they shut up.
Gabriel smiled in agreement before leaning over to pat her on her thigh. “It’s true. We’ve been trying for our own for a while, but we haven’t gotten lucky yet have we, dear?”
Elle bit her tongue on the remark she wanted to make. She wanted to say something snarky like that the reason was because Gabriel was sterile. Or that she had been taking the pill behind his back because the last thing she wanted in the world was children. But he could still kill her, she was well aware of that fact. And there was a flicker in his eyes, and almost promise that sent shivers down her spine. Perhaps she would get something out of this case of charades after all. “Not yet.” She took his hand in her own, grasping it firmly. “We’ll keep trying though.”
Virginia nodded her head. She smiled, the thought of grandchildren probably helped to seal her approval of Elle. “I’ll keep you both in my prayers.”
~*~*~*~*~
After dinner and dessert, it was time to leave. They had an early flight to catch, or that’s what Gabriel told his mother, anyway. After all the other lies he had filled her with over the years, one more didn’t seem like such a big deal. The truth would hurt her a lot more, after all.
Virginia hugged both of them, causing Elle to freeze up slightly when it came to her turn. She wasn’t used to parental affection, and this woman seemed to practically suffocate people in it. Still, compared to her father, it was almost nice.
“We’ll call you as soon as we get back in California,” Gabriel assured his mother.
“I’d hope so, and please, visit more often,” She fretted in response. “Five years is too long to go without seeing my baby boy. Are you sure I can’t persuade you to move back here?”
Before Gabriel could respond, Elle found herself piping up. “We’ll see what we can do.”
Gabriel raised a brow at that comment but didn’t say anything until his mother had closed the door and they were back on their way to the car. “I didn’t think you’d be that easily persuaded to stay with me.”
She blinked in confusion at that comment. Just what did he mean by that, anyways? “Who said anything about staying with you? I thought the agreement was to go with you to meet your mother and play nice, and then you’d release me.” Not that the Company was really that great of a place to stay or anything, and despite her overemphasis on specialness and things like that, Virginia seemed like a step up from the family she had, but all that was beside the point.
“You’re right,” He nodded his head in agreement although his voice had a sardonic tone to it. “But I never planned on following through with it.” He took a step closer to her, pressing her against the car now. “You see, I’ve been watching you for five years, Elle. That’s a long time. And you weren’t happy there, were you?”
Elle bit her lip, suddenly feeling defensive. If there was something she hated, it was being put on the spot like this. How was she supposed to answer properly? “I was just fine,” She countered. “I was one of the best agen-“
“Who was locked up just as badly as any of the inmates,” He didn’t even let her finish up her argument before he brought his hand up to cup her chin, tilting it up to look at him. “My mother really would like it if we produced some grandchildren for her. She’s never taken to a girlfriend of mine as well as she did with you.”
“All that proves is how good an actress I am.” But still, even if she hadn’t deserved it, there had been something nice about the woman’s almost obsessive attention. So different from her father. “If I go with you, can we at least really visit California?” She asked with a grin. “I’ve always wanted to go to Disneyland.”
He smirked a bit before crushing his lips against hers. He lingered there for a moment or two before finally pulling away. “Sure.”
“Well then, how can I refuse?”
Pairings/Characters: Sylar/Elle, Virginia
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Gabriel Gray has been a prisoner in Primatech for the past five years and he’s finally free. He promised to visit his mother, but he’s been lying to her about his life and needs to find someone to play the part of his wife.
Author’s note: Written for the “Insert/Inspiration - Sylar/Elle as Buffalo ’66’s Billy/Layla. Long story short: Sylar kidnaps Elle to take home and pose as his wife for dinner with his mother, Stockholm syndrome ensues” prompt over at the Movie Fic Meme. I’ve never seen the movie so I just took the basic idea and ran with it. Also using it for the “Parents” prompt at 100heroesfics. Thanks goes to faded_facade for the beta!
Gabriel Gray had not meant to end up in prison, and the place they had kept him in was much worse. After the murder of Brian Davis, he had been captured and shipped off to a glass cell at a place he had only heard called “The Company.” But it had been five years and he according to the agents he worked with, he was “rehabilitated.” After all, they had written down the cause of death as manslaughter, not murder, which had reduced the sentence. And after five years there, the first thing he wanted to do was visit his mother.
The only problem was his mother didn’t know where he had really been for the last five years. She thought he had started traveling before settling down in California where he had married a beautiful blonde. But he knew exactly where to find one of those. She worked for the Company and often came in to give him his medicine and his schedule of rehabilitation exercises for the day. She wore provocative outfits and usually left by shocking him in one way or another.
Her name was Elle Bishop, and she would do the trick rather nicely.
He remembered she mentioned a gas station she went to every afternoon to get herself a large Cherry Slush-O. So that’s where he went as soon as he was let out. And once he was there, he watched and waited.
It wasn’t long before she was in there, making her way straight toward the Slush-O machine. He focused on her, using his telekinesis to press against her pressure points. He smirked as she fell to the ground. He made his way over toward her and picked her up easily. “I’ll take her to the hospital,” He tells the man working at the counter. “She’s a friend of mine.” And before anyone could argue, he carried her out of the gas station.
As he secured her into the passenger seat of his car, he’s surprised by how easy everything’s gone so far.
They were about halfway to his mother, Virginia’s, place when Elle’s eyes flew open, and she struggled against the seatbelt. While she had been passed out, Gabriel had taken the liberty of handcuffing her to the door for good measure, just in case she tried anything crazy. “What the hell are you doing?” She looked up, her eyes widening. “You’re that guy they just released from the Company. I told Daddy you weren’t ready to get out yet. One of her hands flared up with electricity. “You better let me go or I’ll fry you here, I swear to God.”
“No you won’t,” Gabriel answers smoothly. “Because if you do, you’ll still be handcuffed to the door, and you won’t have enough time to grab the wheel before you drive into something and die a fiery death. And you don’t want that, do you Elle?”
She pouted before sinking down into her seat. “Yeah, I guess not. That would kind of majorly suck.” She tapped her fingers against the armrest for a few minutes before snapping her head to look up at him again. “So where exactly are you taking me anyways? I swear to God, if you try to rape me or something, I will fry you, impending car accident or not.”
He laughed a little. “You wish I wanted to rape you. You seem like the crazy sort of chick who would be into that sort of thing. But that’s not why you’re here. You see, my mother thinks I’m married. She doesn’t know I’ve been locked away for the past five years, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s never going to find out. All you need to do is pretend to be my wife I met back in California.”
Elle raised a brow. “And why the hell would I do a thing like that?”
And with that he smirked at her. His eyes twinkled with amusement and malice. “Because, if you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
“How do I know you won’t try to kill me anyways?”
“I suppose you’re just going to have to trust me.”
“So how did we meet?” Elle suddenly asked.
He blinks a little in surprise. “You’re actually going to play along?” He didn’t think she’d give in quite so easily.
“Yeah well, it seems like I don’t have much choice at the moment,” And though she would hate to admit it out loud, the whole thing did sound kind of fun. She figured she might as well see how things play out for the time being.
“We met at this small wine tasting gathering….”
~*~*~*~*~*~
About an hour later, they parked at the apartment building Gabriel’s mother lived in. They had stopped at a store beforehand to pick out an outfit Gabriel thought his mother would approve for Elle. They ended up with a long black skirt and a white button up blouse, along with some diamond earrings and matching pendant. An expensive outfit, but it wasn’t like they had paid for any of it, so the price didn’t really matter.
Gabriel paused for a moment as they stood outside the door. He brought a hand up to brush some of Elle’s hair behind her ear. She really was beautiful. “Now, remember, no cursing or coarse language. My mother is very…religious and old fashioned. And I want her to like you.”
Elle laughed a little at that. “I’m not even your real wife and you’re so desperate to get your mother’s approval. How pathetic.”
His grip slipped down to her throat and tightened, choking her a little. “Shut up. Don’t question me, just go along with it.” He let her go, glancing over her. Good, he didn’t leave any marks. He didn’t want his mother suspicious of any less than pristine activity between them. She could be a very judgmental woman, at times. “Are you ready?”
Elle shrugged her shoulders, bringing a hand up to rub her neck a little. It was sore, but she would live. “As much as I’ll ever be.” In the back of her head, she couldn’t help but wonder why her father hadn’t tried calling her or anything. Surely by now, he must have noticed she was missing? Didn’t he care? She couldn’t help but be a little bothered by that.
But she didn’t have much time to dwell on it before Gabriel brought his hand up, knocking on the door. There was a creak and then the door opened, revealing a rather frail looking woman. She smiled brightly, clasping Gabriel’s face in her hands. “My Gabriel, I knew you would come home to me, I just knew it.”
Gabriel’s mother glanced over at Elle, and for a moment there, her expression was almost unreadable. But then she grabbed one of Elle’s hand and tugged her in. “It’s so nice to meet you. Gabriel told me all about you in his letters. You must be quite the woman to have kept him away from me for five years” Her voice was a little too nice to be real, as if she secretly resented Elle. Like she was the “other woman”. Which was pretty strange considering she was Gabriel’s mother and all that.
She had a feeling that this was going to be something of a long night, to say the least.
They settled within his mother’s apartment. Elle was pretty sure she had never seen something so bizarrely creepy. So many snow globes, it was enough to make someone feel claustrophobic. Suddenly, Gabriel’s whole growing up to be a murderer and kidnapper thing made a lot of sense to her.
“So, is it true that you’ve been studying to go into teaching?” Virginia asked, breaking Elle out of her thoughts. Elle would have been surprised by the question if Gabriel hadn’t explained her “backstory” to her on the way over.
So instead she faked a big bright smile for the older woman. “That’s right, I just love children.” In reality, she couldn’t stand them. They were loud and noisy, and most of the time, when she was around them, she wanted to zap them until they shut up.
Gabriel smiled in agreement before leaning over to pat her on her thigh. “It’s true. We’ve been trying for our own for a while, but we haven’t gotten lucky yet have we, dear?”
Elle bit her tongue on the remark she wanted to make. She wanted to say something snarky like that the reason was because Gabriel was sterile. Or that she had been taking the pill behind his back because the last thing she wanted in the world was children. But he could still kill her, she was well aware of that fact. And there was a flicker in his eyes, and almost promise that sent shivers down her spine. Perhaps she would get something out of this case of charades after all. “Not yet.” She took his hand in her own, grasping it firmly. “We’ll keep trying though.”
Virginia nodded her head. She smiled, the thought of grandchildren probably helped to seal her approval of Elle. “I’ll keep you both in my prayers.”
~*~*~*~*~
After dinner and dessert, it was time to leave. They had an early flight to catch, or that’s what Gabriel told his mother, anyway. After all the other lies he had filled her with over the years, one more didn’t seem like such a big deal. The truth would hurt her a lot more, after all.
Virginia hugged both of them, causing Elle to freeze up slightly when it came to her turn. She wasn’t used to parental affection, and this woman seemed to practically suffocate people in it. Still, compared to her father, it was almost nice.
“We’ll call you as soon as we get back in California,” Gabriel assured his mother.
“I’d hope so, and please, visit more often,” She fretted in response. “Five years is too long to go without seeing my baby boy. Are you sure I can’t persuade you to move back here?”
Before Gabriel could respond, Elle found herself piping up. “We’ll see what we can do.”
Gabriel raised a brow at that comment but didn’t say anything until his mother had closed the door and they were back on their way to the car. “I didn’t think you’d be that easily persuaded to stay with me.”
She blinked in confusion at that comment. Just what did he mean by that, anyways? “Who said anything about staying with you? I thought the agreement was to go with you to meet your mother and play nice, and then you’d release me.” Not that the Company was really that great of a place to stay or anything, and despite her overemphasis on specialness and things like that, Virginia seemed like a step up from the family she had, but all that was beside the point.
“You’re right,” He nodded his head in agreement although his voice had a sardonic tone to it. “But I never planned on following through with it.” He took a step closer to her, pressing her against the car now. “You see, I’ve been watching you for five years, Elle. That’s a long time. And you weren’t happy there, were you?”
Elle bit her lip, suddenly feeling defensive. If there was something she hated, it was being put on the spot like this. How was she supposed to answer properly? “I was just fine,” She countered. “I was one of the best agen-“
“Who was locked up just as badly as any of the inmates,” He didn’t even let her finish up her argument before he brought his hand up to cup her chin, tilting it up to look at him. “My mother really would like it if we produced some grandchildren for her. She’s never taken to a girlfriend of mine as well as she did with you.”
“All that proves is how good an actress I am.” But still, even if she hadn’t deserved it, there had been something nice about the woman’s almost obsessive attention. So different from her father. “If I go with you, can we at least really visit California?” She asked with a grin. “I’ve always wanted to go to Disneyland.”
He smirked a bit before crushing his lips against hers. He lingered there for a moment or two before finally pulling away. “Sure.”
“Well then, how can I refuse?”