The Devils You Think You Know - Chapter Twenty Five
Title: The Devils You Think You Know
Rating: High T to Low M
Status: Complete
Summary: Take a look into the life of Claire Benett from the exposed future. How did she become so cold? Why did she want Peter dead? How does Sylar and his son factor into all of this?
Author: 1bill_sookie (tfbl)
Disclamier: not mine
Section Three: Chapter One
2026 - 2031
PART ONE
It has been five years since that day in a homeless village in Mexico when everything changed, and within those years many more changes have occurred throughout the world. Some are perdibtcile, others are unprecedented, a few are minor alterations that cause barley a ripple in the large scheme of things, there are occurrences that give millions of people hope, and the there are things that are important to only a select few individuals.
PART TWO
Claire and Gabriel did not intend to buy the loft that they had landed in after teleporting away from Kirby Plaza, it just sort of happened. The morning after they had arrived in the States Claire had awakened to find a note from Gabriel written in the dust on the wall.
“Back in an hour.”
Twenty minutes later, during which Claire had passed her time searching for that mouse Gabriel teleported back in, carrying two breakfasts from McDonald’s. After using some packets of wet napkins to wipe clean a small area of the floor they sit on the cold concrete, and in between bites of pancakes, greasy hash browns, and mouthfuls of orange juice Claire and Gabriel discus their plans. They both agree to keep a low profile, firstly because neither are sure that anyone is supposed to be residing in this loft, and secondly because neither of them want to be bothered. Claire revels that she would like to go to college, seeing as she had barely finished High School before being forced to work for Pinehurst, and Gabriel says that as of right now the only thing he wants to do is live in a place with water that doesn’t require a fire underneath it to become hot. Both of these goals, despite the extreme differences in the time duration it will take to reach them, require money, which means obtaining a job.
It takes some effort, but after two weeks of sneaking in showers and teeth brushings at a nearby YMCA, obtaining nice clothes and an air mattress at a church charity donation, trekking all over Lower Manhattan, and filling out endless stacks of applications they finally land work. Claire is hired as a waitress at an Olive Garden only 15 minutes away by the Subway, while Gabriel gets a job as the greater at a used car dealership just down the street.
In terms of the actual work she is required to perform Claire’s job is fairly easy, for apart from dealing with some rude customers every once in a while all she really has to do is remember orders, be polite and deliver the food quickly, wash tables and make sure the drinks are full. Now the mindset…. that’s another story. Claire has not had any sort of job in six years, and the only one that she did have required killing, stakeouts, and tracking a terrorist back and fourth across the earth four times before lunch. Working in a place where she can’t order people around, is always expected to smile and appear well rested, and must listen to people complain about their problems and comment on everything from the weather to the camp that was just found in Ethiopia without knocking them out with her tray is very draining.
Gabriel’s job is much simpler, for all he’s required to do is open the door for customers and say “Welcome to Save and Pay.” Claire could kill him for this, if for not the fact that he’s even more board then she is.
By the end of two months they have made $150.00 between them, which isn’t even enough to buy a mattress, let alone something as basic as modernized hot water. It is enough to buy food however, and the day that they receive the money Claire and Gabriel ignore the dark clouds that signal approaching snow and walk to the store, buying about $100.00 worth of fruit, water, bread, peanut butter, and granola bars.
When they teleport back into the loft they find a piece of paper near the door, which Claire would have thrown it away, but she happened to glance at the writing on the front and… thank god she didn’t. This wasn’t any normal paper, it was a check in her stepmother’s handwriting, addressed to Claire for two million dollars.
Gabriel and Claire stare at the check, amazed that apparently Tracy had known where they were, and also at the amount of money that Tracy is just giving to them. It would be enough buy three floors of this building and six beach front houses in Hawaii if they wanted to.
At this realization they both look around the loft where they have been living (hiding) for two months, and figure “why not?” So they buy the loft for $30,000.00 on the spot, insisting that the landlord doesn’t need to show it to them before hand. Cleaning crews are provided by the landlord, and as the crew cleans out all of the dust and removes the boards from the windows Claire and Gabriel spend the next three days sleeping in five star hotels (read: hot tubs and chocolate), and purchasing clothes, furniture and other household appliances.
As night approaches on the fourth day Claire looks around their new home, which just like their old apartment is a combation of both of them. There is a firm bed covered with black and blue sheets, dressers and tables of either maple or pine, thick rugs and bare floor, plush couches and hard armchairs, tons of books and a flat screen TV, clothes in bright and dark tones, dishes that create a multihued rainbow, and French Roast coffee and Earl Gray tea.
So, no. Gabriel and Claire did not intend to buy the loft where Gabriel had killed a famous painter and they had spent two months sleeping on a air mattress. They had found a check after coming back from a store, tired, hungry, and with the threat of a blizzard hanging over them, and it just happened.
PART THREE
Almost as soon as the news reaches them people everywhere began to come out of hiding, some walking boldly out into the street while others peer around corners or make their appearance in the dead of night, unconvinced that it is really over. They crawl out of sewage pipes, open fields, and forests, uncaring as to the scars and bruises that litter their body. They do not notice the awful condition of their clothes, their skeleton thin bodies, nor the lice infesting their hair, for these have become as normal to them as the color of their skin. Others do however, and those that never had a reason to fear the Camps look on in horror as they see the hollow eyes and bones nearly poking through their skin, appearing for all the world like the survivors of a concretion camp.
The truth of the camps is reveled via newspapers, computers and television. People read in newspapers or online of how 4,000 individuals were found in camps in Nevada, while in China and Italy 6,000 a piece were discovered. They watch the news, feeling sick as they see people with horrible scars and disfigurements, those whose muscles have atrophied and children that have grown up in a cell, viewing the torture, fear, and brutal death around them as a normal part of their daily lives. After months of therapy some of the survivors of the camps, those that had not been driven insane, write letters to news stations or their government. They describe as best as they can the events leading up to their imprisonment, what treatment they were forced to endure, and the exact nature of the power that condemned them.
There are world wide heroes declared in the individuals of Micah Sanders, Abby Low, and West Rosen for their foundation of the organization that helped over 20,000 people safely into hiding, and there are protests and raids from those who still think that everyone with an inborn power should remain locked away.
Thousands of corpses are discovered, some dead of natural causes, others are determined to have fallen victim to the weather or wild animals, but the majority are found with bullet holes or stab wounds, track marks upon their arms or evidence of severe abuse, wounds that are impossible to be self-inflicted, and a lifetime of proustion. They are found in alleyways, abandoned buildings, buried underneath mounds of garbage, drifting along in boats in the middle of the ocean and on the bottom of rivers and lakes, and among the boxes of storage units and attics. Not all of the bodies discovered were above the legal age, let alone close to it.
There are public speeches of apology, new government leaders are selected, thousands upon thousands of people are imprisoned, and after the estimated worldwide deathtole of 2,9452 is released the past 17 years become known as “the worst genocide this earth has ever seen”.
PART FOUR
Claire knew that going back to school would be difficult, but she hadn’t thought it would be this hard. It was one thing applying for colleges, (what with forgering birth documation and High School records), waiting anxiously for acceptance or rejection letters, and finally touring the five colleges she had been accepted to. It was quite another matter figure out which classes she would be required to take at Berkeley College in order to obtain a Medical degree, keeping up with all of her homework, performing Clincial work, and managing her stress. If she were forced to write 20 page papers, memorize and take detailed notes on 60 page chapters, and create presations while studying 80 pages of notes and remembering drug facts and how to perform surgery by herself Claire knows that she would either drop out or have two panic attacks a week. Thankfully Claire has help in the forms of Gabriel and Emma (whom Gabriel had teleported back to Mexico to find the day after he and Claire had arrived in the US, and who now lives in the loft they had bought for her on the floor below them).
Gabriel aids Claire by helping her review the material after he has memorized it, reminding her to eat and sleep, making her laugh, and proof reading her papers. He cleans the loft and makes her three pots of coffee a day without comment, makes her sleep and take breaks, and witnesses her three breakdowns with grace. Gabriel forces her to de-stress by taking her out to dinner and movies, goes on evening runs with her, makes sure she reads a book for pleasure, and takes her to play Paintball and Laser tag.
Emma helps Claire as well, in a manner similar and yet different to Gabriel. Emma is a doctor, having obtained her medical degree before being forced to run from the government. Due to the five years of hands on experience Emma posses she is more of a help to Claire then any of her professors. She gives Claire practical advice that she would never be taught in a classroom or in a hospital, such as how break bad news to family members, and that it was ok to let them see that the death of their loved one as affected her. Many times Claire will go to Emma for advice or aid when she doesn’t want to stay at school until after 8:00 PM, or decides to give Gabriel a break from reviewing biochemistry, anatomy and physiology, or how to hook up an IV. Regardless of the hour or if she has a pervious activity planned Emma is always willing to go over vocabulary definitions, quiz her on the proper drug dosage and combination, or sometimes just listen as Claire complains about her workload or professors.
There is so much more that Emma does, both for Claire and Gabriel besides helping Claire study. She has become the only person that Gabriel and Claire have trusted enough to revel the secret of their immoratatly, as well as their work for Pinehurst, Noah, and Peter. She will go with them to baseball games and the aquarium, and they willingly attend her cello performances that she gives in Central Park in order to raise money for the hearing impaired. Claire helps Emma decorate her loft, and Gabriel buys her a rare collection of solo performances by Yo-Yo Ma for her birthday. Emma watches movies with them and goes for walks around the city, eats dinner with them twice a week and accomplices Claire to get her bellybutton pierced.
Emma has told them about her life before Mexico: how she nearly quit Medical school after her nephew, Christopher, had drowned while in her care, and that she had lived in an apartment with a cat named Button. Emma tells them that after she had failed to save a little girl named Megan she had briefly conseridered joining The Sullivan Bros. Carnival but decided not to when almost all of the members became targets of the government, and that after she had gone of the run she had worked at The Burnt Toast Diner in Texas.
She revealed how difficult it had been being a doctor when she couldn’t hear, and how even though she was afraid when her ability first manifested she was also grateful for it, because when she sees the bright red sound waves of an approaching alblumence, the soft pink and blue of chemo children laughing, or the deep violet that is her name, it is as if she is able to hear so much more then ordinary people could ever hope to.
Emma has become so much more to Claire and Gabriel then their neighbor, an aquantice from a Mexican homeless village, or someone that helps Claire study. As the years have passed she has become their friend as well as their sister.
PART FIVE
Through humane research and testing a cure is found for those with abitiles. It is nothing more then a simple shot, and yet it will completely remove the power from the indviusl’s genetic makeup and is resistant to any other ability attempting to take the place of the pervious one. It also makes it impossible for any abititly to be passed along to the children of those who choose to have this procedure, regardless of weather or not one parent has not had the procedure.
Mohinder Suresh becomes the spokesperson for the new formula, appearing on television with his wife, Maya and their two year old daughter, Alejandrina. He tells how his failed attempt to produce this very cure coupled with his foolish desire for abilities turned him into a barely human monster, and revels how his life was saved by this remarkable invention. Pitchers and television specials are released of Suresh family at their home in India, proving to the public that those who have this cure administrated do not have to fear they will accidently harm their families and can watch their children stumble after the family dog and hear their wife insult them in her birth tongue (maybe not on national television, but the general point gets across).
Mohinder and his family give people hope that they can live a normal life, free of whatever power they possess.
Soon the lines are spilling out the doors of medical faccitlies across the globe, stretching for miles in every direction as individuals remain in lines for days. Those who have it done appear in the media, their smiles and tears of joy prompting others to get the shot as well.
One year after the formula is released millions of people no longer have an abititly, and with more and more people choosing to take the cure the human race is slowly turning back to the same powerless state it was in in the year 2006.
PART SIX
New music bands become popular, controversial new books are published, and the shows of Desperate Housewives and House switch from one night a week to seven, and a new series of Star Trek films are released. King William and Kate of Denmark have three sons and two daughters, Scarlett Johansson enters into a triad marriage with Natalie Portman and Zoe Saldana, and Barack Obama becomes president of the United States. Energy efficient hybrid cars are produced and new trees are planted in an attempt to “go green”, lakes are discovered deep underneath the Antarctic ice, catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis occur in Japan, and 528 new species of animal and plant life are discovered.
PART SEVEN
Realizing she is in love with Gabriel could have occurred gradually or quickly, depending on how you choose to look at it. Claire realized it when she was in her second year of Medical School, after receiving a call from him during her break. The call hadn’t been about anything important. Gabriel had just called to say hello, ask if she wanted him to make something for dinner, and to make sure that their plans for that Friday were still in effect. After Claire had hung up the phone she stared at it’s shiny black surface, her offhand, parting words of “love you” to Gabriel stuck in her head.
Why had she said that? Claire had never said that to Gabriel before, not in all the years they had been friends. Gabriel didn’t take it personally, for he knew that not only was he the most important person in her life, but that she had harbored a reservation for that phrase ever since Nathan had said it, and then proceeded to give Claire a choice between Pinehurst and the Camps.
Most important person in her life… if you want to piss off your boyfriend up there he’s the guy for the job… when she hears that he has acquired Molly Parkman’s ability she is not concerned for the small child, but for Gabriel… you only smile that way when you’re around him… crimson and gold wrapping around her soul… wouldn’t know what she’d do without him…. I’ll kill you if you say that to him….
As the words that Claire had said and the emotions that she has experienced, the comments that other’s had spoken to her throughout the years, and how Gabriel has always been first in her thoughts come back to her… it hits her.
She is in love with her best friend.
She is in love not only with Gabriel Gray, the “good side” of his personality, who fights against a Hunger that he loathes and whom had worked for Pinehurst. She was also in love with Sylar, the “dark and evil” aspect of him, who Gabriel became when he allowed his control to slip, who loved the dangerous consumption of the Hunger, and whom she had witnessed grieving over the loss of Noah.
She has been in love with him for years. That was why it hurt so much when he left, why she had been so angry - no jealous - when she’d seen him dancing with that woman in the club, and why it felt right to live with him and sleep in the same bed.
Claire also knew that what she was feeling wasn’t simply based on lust, nor had this feeling developed because of mere proximity.
It had come about because of the way that he allowed her to fight her own battles, always standing quietly by her side should she need him. This feeling had happened because of the regret in his eyes when he murdered a family, that cocky smile and raised eyebrow that never failed to get under her skin, how he had not once condemned her because of what her dad had done to him, and because of the deep blue highlights in his hair. She had fallen for him because he liked ebony wood floors and plain white dishes, for his fierce temper and how he was always there for her, and because he always left the cupboard doors open and never paused a DVD before going to bed. Claire was in love with him because of the way he would finger her hair and play “connect the dots” with the freckles on her stomach, because he allowed her to yell at him and fall asleep on top of him, and because of how he could do sarcasm better then anyone she had ever met.
Had Claire fallen in love with him after she realized that she had never felt safer then when she was in his presence? Perhaps it was because of the dark undertone to his sense of humor, how he still liked to repair “time pieces”, and how he could be unbelievably cunning and manipulative when it suited him? Was it because he welcomed her touch and concern for his well being, but brushed off almost everyone else? Had it happened because of the anger she could see on his face when Nathan critzed her, or had it happened even before that, on that day they had sat on a bench in Central Park?
If Claire had described this to one of her fellow students, they might have said that what she was feeling for Gabriel was nothing more then a crush. They would most likely try to reason with her by pointing out that anyone can feel butterflies in their stomach, love those little quirks, and feel jealously over someone and claim to be in love. But Claire knew it was so much more then that giddy sensation in her stomach that she had experienced with West Rosen. It was more because of the level of closeness and trust she and Gabriel had between them thanks to over 20 years of friendship and loyalty, hardships overcome, and countless moments of pleasure and pain that they had faced together.
They could sit for hours in silence, reading together or painting a cat climbing up a wall, and not feel the need to utter a word. It was shown when they had moved in together without discussion, how it felt completely natural to sleep in the same bed, and when they had entire conversations with facial expressions and body language. It was evident by the way they augured about little things and teased each-other, when they didn’t care if the other saw them in baggy sweatpants or with their hair unbrushed, and how both of them made the other laugh and performed activies with each - other that they didn’t nesserialy enjoy. It was clear when they instinevtly moved to protect the other from danger, and how they were able to forgive and overlook the mistakes that had been made and the hurt they had caused.
As suddenly as the realization that she is in love with her best friend comes to Claire so does something else. It is the last words that Elle spoke to her as she lay dyeing beside her in that car.
He’s in love with you, you know. Seriously in love, like you hung the moon or whatever. The way his eyes light up whenever you’re mentioned, it’s second only to… him. It’s like he thinks you’re an angel or something.
When Claire comprehends the content of her training partner’s final words that for years had gone unrecalled she stands abruptly, blindly gathering up her textbooks and notes spread out across the table.
Sometime before Elle’s death she had seen Gabriel and Noah.
Gabriel had been in love with her even then, when he thought that she had abandoned their son.
It’s like he thinks you’re an angel or something.
Claire walks quickly out of the building, not caring that has a test in four hours. She has to find Gabriel and ask him - tell him - well, she doesn’t know how she’s going to phrase it. She just knows that somehow she has to tell him how she feels.
PART EIGHT
Osama Bin Laden is killed, the price of coffee, milk, and gas skyrocket, Micha Sanders marries Molly Parkman and new advancements are made in the field of space exploration. Same sex and multiple partner marriages become legal worldwide, 30 people are arrested and convicted for the repeated rape of an 11 year old girl in Florida, and there is a bombing in Sweden.
PART NINE
Their first “official date” occurs a week later, when she and Gabriel teleport to a deserted beach in Cuba. For the most part it’s not all that different from the dozens of occasions they’ve spent on the beach. They swim in the clear turquoise water and sunbathe on smooth white sand, look for Sand dollars and crabs along the shoreline, chase each-other across the sand and dunk the other beneath the jewel like waves. They sit in the shade provided by huge palm trees, and Gabriel laughs his head off when Claire not only fails to climb a palm tree, but is almost hit by a falling coconut.
What is different is that now they have confessed their feelings.
The revelation of their feelings doesn’t create any sort of sexual tension between them. Not because there is none, but because the sexual element had always been there, it had just expressed itself in ways that most people wouldn’t consider to be typical “sexual” behavior of two people in love.
Instead of kissing on the mouth, Claire and Gabriel would press butterfly kisses onto each-other’s chest and stomach, forehead and shoulders, or their cheekbones.
They touched each-other by laying a hand upon an arm, lightly grasping a wrist, or crassering the side of their face. Claire would run her hand up and down Gabriel’s back or hold onto his hand, while Gabriel would place his hand on her lower back or over her hip. They would play with the other’s hair, wrap their arms around waists or lean against the other’s body. Claire would sleep either on top of or beside Gabriel, and while he would be the “big spoon”, she would always wrap her arms around him. They would hug without reservation, lightly skim their fingertips over collarbones, and rub circles on the back of hands with their thumbs.
True, the aknowdglment of their feelings did not create a sexual element to their relanship, it just made them more aware of the already preexisting tension.
For the first time Claire admitted to herself that she appreciated the well formed muscles of Gabriel’s body, and not in the manner that she would have apperaiteed them on Zach or Peter, but as she would on a lover. She made herself see that she loved the feel of Gabriel silkily smooth hair between her fingers, that she found the sent of his body as well as the taste of his sweat arousing, and that she had desired to feel his lips against hers for a rather long time now. Claire now understood that she and Gabriel had engaged in training sessions so frequently not because they needed the practice, but because the nature of a session required a lot of physical contact that she had subconchiely been desperate for. It meant legs hooking around legs, hands coming to rest over ribs or near pelvises, arms wrapped forcefully around stomachs and chests sliding against backs. Often their bodies would be pressed tightly together even as they attempted to throw off their partner’s form, Claire bucking and withering underneath Gabriel’s heavier body as it pressed her firmly against a mat, her body naturally mirroring the movements of the one above her.
As for Gabriel… he would tell her later that this revelation had not made him aware of anything other then that she wanted him just as strongly as he wanted her.
Another thing that this confession did not change was the way in which they interacted with each other. They still fought and lightly teased, touched and held one another, deliberately did things that they knew would annoy the other, and gave out glares and scarsam like they were going out of style. True, they definitely did not have the smoothest road behind them, but when it counted it had always been so effortless between them. Some might even say that it was as easy as breathing. The only thing that admitting that they were in love with their best friend had done was make that effortlessness even stronger.
PART NINE
They continue to go on “official dates” (as Emma calls them) for five months. They go out to dinner or go bowling, attended movies and plays, go mini golfing, ice skating, spend the night at a colorfully lit outdoor carnival, or just have a quiet night in away from textbooks and computers. Claire and Gabriel spend a week in New Orleans, staying in a small bed-and-breakfast that boasts airy and well lit rooms and fabulous strawberry bottereaux. They walk along the streets drinking beer out of plastic cups, take ferry rides, and go dancing in brightly lit clubs. They go to Maine for the day, watching the seals sunbath on the docks and go kiacking around Machias Seal Island, using binoculars to spot the black and white Puffins high up on the cliffs. Gabriel takes her to Ireland for a one hour lunch date, which they spend in a restaurant eating corned beef and attempting to see through the heavy downpour outside of their window.
PART TEN
Their first kiss occurs at night, outside of the entrance to their loft. It is not deep and passionate, the way that those cheesy romance books always describe it. When their lips meet it is in a firm, closed mouthed kiss. It is not a kiss that is fueled by lust or adrelaion, nor is it one of two people who are new to each-other’s bodies. It was a kiss that spoke of the deep intimacy and love that only lovers of many years experience.
PART ELEVEN
The first time they make love it’s hesitant, their first, forced time lingering in both of their minds. They take their time undressing one another, fingers lingering over cloth, buttons, and seams, silently asking permission before the barrier is removed. There are halted progressions of hands and mouths when even the smallest flinch occurs, and fingers, lips, or tongues are hastily drawn away if the flesh beneath them becomes tense. Pleasure builds, beads of sweat form, breathing becomes heavy, and explorations gain confidence as fearful memories fade. Regrown barriers are felt, stretched, and are breached slowly, the resulting blood ignored. Slow, then increasingly harder thrusts occur as breathless pants and unintelligible cries fill the air. Names are spoken as a reverent plea and when the pressure at the base of their spines reaches it’s limit and after white hot pleasure has made it’s way throughout their bodies he remains inside her for a time, as if determined to take possession of this one aspect of her that he never truly had a chance to claim. She lets him.
PART TWELEVE
When they get married three years latter they don’t have anything extravent or ridouscly expensive. The ceremony is not held outside, nor is there white doves, professional photographers, hand taloriered clothes, rings of silver and 16 karat diamonds, or a bunch of people unknown to them. They are married in a court house, the bright red and orange leaves of fall falling from the trees as crows and ravens loudly protest the presence of a cat. Claire wears earrings and a beautiful yet understated wedding dress, while Gabriel has on a simple black and white tux from Men’s Warehouse. The rings that they exchange are plain bands of silver, the only adornment being the elegant Celtic knot-work making up the rings in their entirety. After the judge has proclaimed them husband and wife Emma sets down the box of cupcakes to snap a picture, the resulating image slightly grainy and with the preasence of unknown others as they intrude on their newly wedded bliss.
Claire and Gabriel Gray could not care less how “imperfect” someone else might find their wedding day, what with the cheep court house, one guest, and boxed cupcakes. To them, it is perfect.
PART THIRETTEN
When Claire graduates from Medical School there are many families in the audience. There are mothers, fathers, grandparents, cousins, and sons. Claire sees her old lab partner, Elizabeth Berg, receiving hugs from her mothers, Gretchen and Kate. She notices those who have last names that she recognizes: Mitchum, Woolsly, Anderson, Willcox, and Gordon. There are grandparents beaming at their grandchildren, siblings gazing proudly at the one that had tormented them in their youth, and husbands and wives apulding their spouse’s accomplishment. As Claire walks into the crowd she doesn’t see her parents, her old High School friends, nor her grandparents.
What she does see is her sister applauding her, for once ignoring the sound waves dancing in the air as she smiles widely at her. Claire sees her husband, his eyes and smile convoying his pride as he stands with his hands in his pockets, his body angled toward her as he waits for her to come to him. Claire does of course. She always does.
TBC
AN: Sylar and Claire wedding photo:http://images4.fanpop.com/image/user_images/2115000/billandsookie-2115675_460_600.jpg
