quinto formaggi: chapter fourteen
Fandoms: Stuff ZQ was in
Words: 2,747 2,770 (oct'10 rev)
All Chapters
"...Mike?" Sasan asked. "What happened to you?"
"I know what you did," Mike said, his voice trembling. "I saw the bodies, I know that you-"
"What are you talking about?"
"YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Mike yelled.
Sasan slowly lowered the water tank, Smudge following his lead.
Sasan raised his hands in surrender. "I don't know what they've told you," he said to Mike. "But we're innocent. We didn't kill anyb-"
"I SAW THE BODIES!" Mike shouted. "They said you said that Sylar is dead, but if he's dead then who killed them, which means that you must have-"
"Mike, put down the gun," Sasan said carefully. "We didn't kill anybody."
"No," Mike said, his voice choking up. "You're lying. I know what you people are like-"
"'You people'?" Sasan repeated incredulously. "Look what they did to you! You're one of us-"
"NO!" Mike yelled, clutching the gun tighter. "I'm not. I'm not."
"Look, put down the gun and we'll go upstairs and talk this over-"
Mike shook his head.
"You're on the wrong side," Sasan said.
"Yeah. The side that doesn't kill people and cut their heads open."
"You're the one with the gun," Smudge said.
"I said I'd kill one of you," Mike said. "So they'll know I'm with them."
"You're one of us," Sasan said again, and the words gnawed at Mike's resolve, tempting him with images of family and belonging and safety and-
"NO!" Mike shouted.
The gun went off. Sasan cried out in pain and fell as the bullet tore through his leg-
Smudge screamed something and lunged at Mike; knocking him over and knocking the gun out of his hand; Mike lacking the will to put up much of a struggle, trying to get away in panic, and then Smudge delivered an angry punch that sent him unconscious onto the ground.
Smudge pulled away, breathing heavily.
"Smudge-"
Smudge turned and rushed to Sasan's side. "Sas!"
Sasan grimaced, pressing a hand down on the wound to try and stem the blood. "Leave him alone. He's been through enough. Get the others. Let them know what happened."
"Are you o-"
"I'll be fine."
"Can you walk?"
Sasan shook his head. "I might need the hospital. Just get the others."
"Okay."
"Leave the water. You can get that later."
Smudge nodded and ran up the escalator.
Sasan regarded the unconscious, injured Mike on the floor and leant his head back against the wall, eyes squeezed shut in pain. It'll be all right, he told himself. It's just one bullet. You're not going to d-
"Sasan, is it?"
His eyes flew open. Terror exploded in his mind.
Sylar smirked, rounding the corner. "It's hard to tell," he said, casually looking over the scene. "You all look the same to me."
*
Smudge ran through the dance floor past the hole and to the rooms; he threw the door open and hurtled in, startling Adam where he was trying to arrange the sandwiches, words spilling desperately out:
"Sasan is hurt and he needs help 'cos Mike shot him and he's bleeding and-"
"What happened?" Leo asked.
"You gotta come help-"
Adam glanced at the laptop screen, still displaying the feed from the base of the escalator; and Smudge saw the look on his face, and rushed over to the screen, his eyes widening as he saw that Sasan was no longer alone.
"NO!"
He made to lunge back out the door when Leo grabbed him.
"Smudge-"
"Let me GO! SYLAR'S THERE, HE'S GOING TO KILL HIM-"
"If you go down there he's going to kill you-"
"I DON'T CARE! SAS NEEDS ME!"
"He'll know where we are," Adam said tonelessly, still looking at the screen. "He'll kill you and then he'll kill us."
Smudge kicked, trying to struggle out of Leo's grasp.
"Smudge, listen-"
"WHAT ABOUT SAS?" Smudge hollered, tears forming in his eyes.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Spock said quietly.
"NO! I can't leave him there, he's going to die, I can't-"
Smudge's gaze travelled to the screen and its camera feed, Sasan helplessly on the ground before the unwelcome visitor, speaking words he could not hear; and Smudge yelled in emphatic pain as a finger twitched and Sasan's head jerked back against the wall; and he tried again to run-
Leo wouldn't let him, hugging Smudge tight, trying to still the panicked limbs that beat against his body; the fear written on his own face and in the lifeless whispers he gave: Smudge, it's over, he's gone, he...
"No. NO! NO!"
And Smudge bit and fought amidst the tears until Adam had to help Leo hold him back, Smudge screaming futilely as he watched the unreachable events unfolding on the screen so near and yet so far away; pain piercing his heart with every unheard scream from Sasan; Sas needed him, he could help him, he didn't know how, he just needed to be there, he had to be there...
"He's coming," Adam said suddenly, as they saw Sylar abandon Sasan's still form and head calmly for the escalator. "He's coming up."
Smudge had dissolved into angry tears on Leo's shoulder; Spock had the presence of mind to quickly nip out and flick off the lights of the surrounding rooms and their own and give the quiet command to hide. Leo pulled Smudge under the table and tried to hush his sobs as they heard the footsteps get off the escalator and cross the floor.
Silence.
The footsteps stopped. Then they left.
Adam peered up at the laptop screen from where he crouched beneath the desk. Eventually he saw Sylar step off the foot of the escalator, pass Sasan, and leave.
Smudge started struggling again.
Adam stood up and slowly turned the lights back on.
"Okay," Leo whispered. "Okay." He let Smudge go.
Smudge stumbled desperately out the room, blinded by tears, clutching onto the escalator rail as he ran trippingly down it several steps at a time with no regard for his own safety.
"Sas-" he choked out as he half-fell off the last few steps onto the floor, crawling the last metre or so.
"Sas..." He gripped onto Sasan's hand, still warm, trembling as he looked up to the blood still streaming from the slit neck.
Eyes opened weakly to look at him.
"I'm here," Smudge gasped out, tears flowing freely. "I'm here, I'm sorry, I..."
He felt Sasan's fingers tighten briefly around his own.
Then the eyes shut, and the fingers went limp.
"No," Smudge said. "No. Sas... Sas!"
He grabbed for a pulse, his own racing. Fumbled with Sasan's wrist, feeling for the steady thrum of life... and found none.
The others came off the escalator and stood a respectful distance behind; and they watched in silence as Smudge broke out into the agonised screams of a newly broken heart.
*
A wall away, Sylar listened and felt nothing. No sadness, no triumph; nothing, save perhaps a faint bitter satisfaction in robbing one of them of the kind of companionship he would never have. But no... he was above that. They... they were just there for his amusement, all cooped up in their little room, thinking he did not know where they were. That was all they meant to him.
*
"Smudge."
A hand rested on his shoulder. He tried to shrug it off, but could not get up the will to do so.
"Smudge. C'mon. Let's go. We can't stay here."
Smudge weakly toyed with the idea that it was Sasan speaking; but his fatigued mind could not sustain the illusion for long against the reality to which he was clutching stubbornly, the fabric of Sasan's shirt wet against his closed eyelids.
"Smudge." Leo's voice came again, still patient.
"I wanna stay here," Smudge managed, refusing to open his eyes.
"He's gone, Smudge."
Smudge didn't reply, clutching on tighter to the still form.
Leo got up from the crouch and walked back to where Adam was regarding the unconscious Mike. He let out a quiet curse.
"What do we do with him?" Leo asked.
"He knows where we are," Spock said. "We can't risk him alerting others to our whereabouts."
"Can we even trust him?" Adam asked. "If he shot Sasan-"
"Without a weapon he is harmless. He poses a far lesser threat to us if we were to take him in than if we were to let him go; and, judging by his current condition, if we let him return, they might kill him."
Adam nodded. He looked over at Smudge. "He still won't let go?" he asked Leo.
"They were close."
"I noticed."
Silence.
"Okay, let's just take him up," Adam said, poking Mike with his shoe. "And get the water. Smudge, if you're staying here you might get killed."
"I don't care," came the muffled reply.
Adam sighed and gave up. He yanked Mike up. "Get his legs," he told Spock.
Leo had returned for a second attempt at getting Smudge away.
"It's not safe here," he said.
"I don't care," Smudge repeated distantly.
"Sasan wouldn't have wanted you to die. I think he cared enough about you to want you to stay safe and not put yourself in danger like this. If Sylar kills you too, what would you gain?"
Silence.
"He said I could go live with him," Smudge said softly. "He said maybe. No one else cares about me."
"We care. All of us. That's why we want you to be safe."
Smudge sniffed and wiped the back of his hand across his face.
"C'mon."
Smudge reluctantly let go of Sasan, gazing a few more moments at him through eyes too tired to continue crying; he remembered the times they had spent together: exploring their prison, escaping from angry superheroes, falling asleep together on the couch, making a video cooler than anything Adam could have done-
The video.
Smudge stuck a hand into Sasan's jeans pockets, feeling a temporary dread as the first turned out empty; until his fingers closed over the flash drive snug in his other side pocket and pulled it out.
Smudge clutched on tightly to it as he looked for the last time upon Sasan's face.
"I won't forget you," he promised in earnest decisiveness. "I won't."
He got up and slipped the flash drive into his own pocket. Leo silently put an arm around his shoulder and guided him back to the others, picking up the water tank and cups as they stepped onto the escalator.
Smudge glanced back for a final farewell as they ascended back up into safety. He felt the flash drive in his pocket, and gained confidence in its presence.
"Bye, Sas," he whispered, his voice shaking, and then the escalator lifted him out of sight.
*
The fog of unconsciousness raised itself from Mike's mind and he became aware that he was lying on a floor. Disoriented fragments of thought struggled to reform into coherent wholes amidst the painful throbbing on the side of his head and throughout most of the rest of his body.
Mike opened his eyes. He made out something which he recognised as a shoe; his gaze travelled up the accompanying leg and settled on the profile of a face intent on a computer screen. It looked familiar...
Something clicked.
With a jolt of horror, Mike scrambled to his feet, wincing at the pain - he'd been beaten up, he remembered now, by those guys, and then by that angry bisexual companion of the guy he'd shot. He collapsed unsteadily back against the wall to which he shrank in terror as the others in the room noticed his return to the conscious world...
His panicked eyes roved from face to familiar face; pulse speeding up, palms pressed back against the wall as he made out the door which suddenly seemed an infinity away; to wake up here, right in the middle of the enemy, smack in their hiding place with - frantically he checked himself but did not find the gun - no weapon.
"You're up," computer guy said in annoyed observation.
Mike looked back towards the door. Perhaps if he ran for-
Spock seemed to sense his intention and moved calmly to stand before the door.
Mike licked dry lips, breaths coming short. "Please don't kill me," he gasped. "Please don't-"
"You shot Sas!" the accusing voice came from the one Mike recognised as responsible for the pounding pain on his head, the fury in his eyes tempered with a wild, profound sadness. "You shot him-"
"Just in the leg," Mike pleaded. "It was just to-"
"HE DIED!" Smudge yelled. "Because of you, and if you hadn't shot him then I wouldn't have had to go and Sas would still be alive and we... we..." The outburst dissolved into tears.
"You okay, Mike?" Leo asked, and Mike found desperate solace in the unexpected kindness.
No, a part of his mind insisted. He's one of them too. He can't be trusted. None of them can. They're going to kill you. They took your gun. They-
Out of nowhere he remembered the promise he'd made to Elle: I'll be back.
"Mike?" Leo asked again, genuine concern on his face. "What did they do to you?"
Mike turned to speak but could not find the words; lost again in the overwhelming sense that he belonged here, among them; torn between the urge to just give in, and the atrocities he had seen which had been attributed to them. Why else would they have run if not out of guilt; why else claim a murderer dead when he was still alive-
He shook his head in reply, wanting a way out of the tumultuous confusion of his mind, just wanting things to make sense, and to be safe and not to die...
"Do they know we're here?" Adam asked.
Mike shook his head. "They said you killed people," he said weakly, almost hopefully, suddenly wanting so much to be proved wrong. He felt the pull to be included in this odd family; felt too his outsider status, wanting it if they turned out to be as thought, but even then, perhaps not...
Adam rolled his eyes. "And you believed them?" he asked. "They've been on our case since the beginning. We haven't done a thing to deserve it, other than being part of some guy's revenge fantasy because some serial killer pissed him off. And now they got you too. Perfect."
"But then... why are you hiding?" Mike asked.
"To get away from them," Leo said.
"And to get away from Sylar," Spock added. "Whom we have reason to suspect is only alive again because of you."
"What?"
"There was a room," Leo said. "It had a sign on it that said 'dead people and serial killer'-"
"Yeah," Mike said. "I saw that. But they were all dead-"
"One of them was Sylar," Leo said. "We killed him by sticking a knife into the back of his head. He has the ability to heal; without that knife he would have quickly recovered."
Mike felt a slow dread rise in him.
"Did you take out the knife?" Leo asked.
Mike blinked. "I thought... I didn't know..."
"Answer the question," Spock said.
Mike nodded.
Adam muttered some silent curse. "Why," he asked. "Why would you do that?"
"It looked painful..."
"He was dead!"
"I'm sorry-"
"Yeah," Adam said harshly. "Tell that to everyone Sylar killed since then. Tell that to Smudge, who's spent the whole morning sitting and crying in that corner because his boyfriend's dead, just because you thought that a knife in a dead body looked painful."
"I... I can help clear your names," Mike said. "I'll tell them it was my fault and-"
"Do you really think they'll listen to you?" Adam asked. "Look in the mirror. You're one of us. They hate us. I'm guessing it wasn't you who beat you up like that. They were using you, you played right into it, and you're not going back to them to screw it up further. I hope you like sandwiches."
Adam got up and stalked out the door.
Mike stood awkwardly beneath the gazes of the others and wished that he were somewhere else.
"I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm really, really sorry..."
Smudge ignored him, curled up in the corner with his face buried in the pillows, his mind still struggling to come to terms with the giant emptiness he felt inside.
Leo came over and placed a hand on Mike's shoulder, guiding him out to the bathroom. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."
*
CHAPTER FIFTEEN >>
Words: 2,747 2,770 (oct'10 rev)
All Chapters
"...Mike?" Sasan asked. "What happened to you?"
"I know what you did," Mike said, his voice trembling. "I saw the bodies, I know that you-"
"What are you talking about?"
"YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Mike yelled.
Sasan slowly lowered the water tank, Smudge following his lead.
Sasan raised his hands in surrender. "I don't know what they've told you," he said to Mike. "But we're innocent. We didn't kill anyb-"
"I SAW THE BODIES!" Mike shouted. "They said you said that Sylar is dead, but if he's dead then who killed them, which means that you must have-"
"Mike, put down the gun," Sasan said carefully. "We didn't kill anybody."
"No," Mike said, his voice choking up. "You're lying. I know what you people are like-"
"'You people'?" Sasan repeated incredulously. "Look what they did to you! You're one of us-"
"NO!" Mike yelled, clutching the gun tighter. "I'm not. I'm not."
"Look, put down the gun and we'll go upstairs and talk this over-"
Mike shook his head.
"You're on the wrong side," Sasan said.
"Yeah. The side that doesn't kill people and cut their heads open."
"You're the one with the gun," Smudge said.
"I said I'd kill one of you," Mike said. "So they'll know I'm with them."
"You're one of us," Sasan said again, and the words gnawed at Mike's resolve, tempting him with images of family and belonging and safety and-
"NO!" Mike shouted.
The gun went off. Sasan cried out in pain and fell as the bullet tore through his leg-
Smudge screamed something and lunged at Mike; knocking him over and knocking the gun out of his hand; Mike lacking the will to put up much of a struggle, trying to get away in panic, and then Smudge delivered an angry punch that sent him unconscious onto the ground.
Smudge pulled away, breathing heavily.
"Smudge-"
Smudge turned and rushed to Sasan's side. "Sas!"
Sasan grimaced, pressing a hand down on the wound to try and stem the blood. "Leave him alone. He's been through enough. Get the others. Let them know what happened."
"Are you o-"
"I'll be fine."
"Can you walk?"
Sasan shook his head. "I might need the hospital. Just get the others."
"Okay."
"Leave the water. You can get that later."
Smudge nodded and ran up the escalator.
Sasan regarded the unconscious, injured Mike on the floor and leant his head back against the wall, eyes squeezed shut in pain. It'll be all right, he told himself. It's just one bullet. You're not going to d-
"Sasan, is it?"
His eyes flew open. Terror exploded in his mind.
Sylar smirked, rounding the corner. "It's hard to tell," he said, casually looking over the scene. "You all look the same to me."
*
Smudge ran through the dance floor past the hole and to the rooms; he threw the door open and hurtled in, startling Adam where he was trying to arrange the sandwiches, words spilling desperately out:
"Sasan is hurt and he needs help 'cos Mike shot him and he's bleeding and-"
"What happened?" Leo asked.
"You gotta come help-"
Adam glanced at the laptop screen, still displaying the feed from the base of the escalator; and Smudge saw the look on his face, and rushed over to the screen, his eyes widening as he saw that Sasan was no longer alone.
"NO!"
He made to lunge back out the door when Leo grabbed him.
"Smudge-"
"Let me GO! SYLAR'S THERE, HE'S GOING TO KILL HIM-"
"If you go down there he's going to kill you-"
"I DON'T CARE! SAS NEEDS ME!"
"He'll know where we are," Adam said tonelessly, still looking at the screen. "He'll kill you and then he'll kill us."
Smudge kicked, trying to struggle out of Leo's grasp.
"Smudge, listen-"
"WHAT ABOUT SAS?" Smudge hollered, tears forming in his eyes.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Spock said quietly.
"NO! I can't leave him there, he's going to die, I can't-"
Smudge's gaze travelled to the screen and its camera feed, Sasan helplessly on the ground before the unwelcome visitor, speaking words he could not hear; and Smudge yelled in emphatic pain as a finger twitched and Sasan's head jerked back against the wall; and he tried again to run-
Leo wouldn't let him, hugging Smudge tight, trying to still the panicked limbs that beat against his body; the fear written on his own face and in the lifeless whispers he gave: Smudge, it's over, he's gone, he...
"No. NO! NO!"
And Smudge bit and fought amidst the tears until Adam had to help Leo hold him back, Smudge screaming futilely as he watched the unreachable events unfolding on the screen so near and yet so far away; pain piercing his heart with every unheard scream from Sasan; Sas needed him, he could help him, he didn't know how, he just needed to be there, he had to be there...
"He's coming," Adam said suddenly, as they saw Sylar abandon Sasan's still form and head calmly for the escalator. "He's coming up."
Smudge had dissolved into angry tears on Leo's shoulder; Spock had the presence of mind to quickly nip out and flick off the lights of the surrounding rooms and their own and give the quiet command to hide. Leo pulled Smudge under the table and tried to hush his sobs as they heard the footsteps get off the escalator and cross the floor.
Silence.
The footsteps stopped. Then they left.
Adam peered up at the laptop screen from where he crouched beneath the desk. Eventually he saw Sylar step off the foot of the escalator, pass Sasan, and leave.
Smudge started struggling again.
Adam stood up and slowly turned the lights back on.
"Okay," Leo whispered. "Okay." He let Smudge go.
Smudge stumbled desperately out the room, blinded by tears, clutching onto the escalator rail as he ran trippingly down it several steps at a time with no regard for his own safety.
"Sas-" he choked out as he half-fell off the last few steps onto the floor, crawling the last metre or so.
"Sas..." He gripped onto Sasan's hand, still warm, trembling as he looked up to the blood still streaming from the slit neck.
Eyes opened weakly to look at him.
"I'm here," Smudge gasped out, tears flowing freely. "I'm here, I'm sorry, I..."
He felt Sasan's fingers tighten briefly around his own.
Then the eyes shut, and the fingers went limp.
"No," Smudge said. "No. Sas... Sas!"
He grabbed for a pulse, his own racing. Fumbled with Sasan's wrist, feeling for the steady thrum of life... and found none.
The others came off the escalator and stood a respectful distance behind; and they watched in silence as Smudge broke out into the agonised screams of a newly broken heart.
*
A wall away, Sylar listened and felt nothing. No sadness, no triumph; nothing, save perhaps a faint bitter satisfaction in robbing one of them of the kind of companionship he would never have. But no... he was above that. They... they were just there for his amusement, all cooped up in their little room, thinking he did not know where they were. That was all they meant to him.
*
"Smudge."
A hand rested on his shoulder. He tried to shrug it off, but could not get up the will to do so.
"Smudge. C'mon. Let's go. We can't stay here."
Smudge weakly toyed with the idea that it was Sasan speaking; but his fatigued mind could not sustain the illusion for long against the reality to which he was clutching stubbornly, the fabric of Sasan's shirt wet against his closed eyelids.
"Smudge." Leo's voice came again, still patient.
"I wanna stay here," Smudge managed, refusing to open his eyes.
"He's gone, Smudge."
Smudge didn't reply, clutching on tighter to the still form.
Leo got up from the crouch and walked back to where Adam was regarding the unconscious Mike. He let out a quiet curse.
"What do we do with him?" Leo asked.
"He knows where we are," Spock said. "We can't risk him alerting others to our whereabouts."
"Can we even trust him?" Adam asked. "If he shot Sasan-"
"Without a weapon he is harmless. He poses a far lesser threat to us if we were to take him in than if we were to let him go; and, judging by his current condition, if we let him return, they might kill him."
Adam nodded. He looked over at Smudge. "He still won't let go?" he asked Leo.
"They were close."
"I noticed."
Silence.
"Okay, let's just take him up," Adam said, poking Mike with his shoe. "And get the water. Smudge, if you're staying here you might get killed."
"I don't care," came the muffled reply.
Adam sighed and gave up. He yanked Mike up. "Get his legs," he told Spock.
Leo had returned for a second attempt at getting Smudge away.
"It's not safe here," he said.
"I don't care," Smudge repeated distantly.
"Sasan wouldn't have wanted you to die. I think he cared enough about you to want you to stay safe and not put yourself in danger like this. If Sylar kills you too, what would you gain?"
Silence.
"He said I could go live with him," Smudge said softly. "He said maybe. No one else cares about me."
"We care. All of us. That's why we want you to be safe."
Smudge sniffed and wiped the back of his hand across his face.
"C'mon."
Smudge reluctantly let go of Sasan, gazing a few more moments at him through eyes too tired to continue crying; he remembered the times they had spent together: exploring their prison, escaping from angry superheroes, falling asleep together on the couch, making a video cooler than anything Adam could have done-
The video.
Smudge stuck a hand into Sasan's jeans pockets, feeling a temporary dread as the first turned out empty; until his fingers closed over the flash drive snug in his other side pocket and pulled it out.
Smudge clutched on tightly to it as he looked for the last time upon Sasan's face.
"I won't forget you," he promised in earnest decisiveness. "I won't."
He got up and slipped the flash drive into his own pocket. Leo silently put an arm around his shoulder and guided him back to the others, picking up the water tank and cups as they stepped onto the escalator.
Smudge glanced back for a final farewell as they ascended back up into safety. He felt the flash drive in his pocket, and gained confidence in its presence.
"Bye, Sas," he whispered, his voice shaking, and then the escalator lifted him out of sight.
*
The fog of unconsciousness raised itself from Mike's mind and he became aware that he was lying on a floor. Disoriented fragments of thought struggled to reform into coherent wholes amidst the painful throbbing on the side of his head and throughout most of the rest of his body.
Mike opened his eyes. He made out something which he recognised as a shoe; his gaze travelled up the accompanying leg and settled on the profile of a face intent on a computer screen. It looked familiar...
Something clicked.
With a jolt of horror, Mike scrambled to his feet, wincing at the pain - he'd been beaten up, he remembered now, by those guys, and then by that angry bisexual companion of the guy he'd shot. He collapsed unsteadily back against the wall to which he shrank in terror as the others in the room noticed his return to the conscious world...
His panicked eyes roved from face to familiar face; pulse speeding up, palms pressed back against the wall as he made out the door which suddenly seemed an infinity away; to wake up here, right in the middle of the enemy, smack in their hiding place with - frantically he checked himself but did not find the gun - no weapon.
"You're up," computer guy said in annoyed observation.
Mike looked back towards the door. Perhaps if he ran for-
Spock seemed to sense his intention and moved calmly to stand before the door.
Mike licked dry lips, breaths coming short. "Please don't kill me," he gasped. "Please don't-"
"You shot Sas!" the accusing voice came from the one Mike recognised as responsible for the pounding pain on his head, the fury in his eyes tempered with a wild, profound sadness. "You shot him-"
"Just in the leg," Mike pleaded. "It was just to-"
"HE DIED!" Smudge yelled. "Because of you, and if you hadn't shot him then I wouldn't have had to go and Sas would still be alive and we... we..." The outburst dissolved into tears.
"You okay, Mike?" Leo asked, and Mike found desperate solace in the unexpected kindness.
No, a part of his mind insisted. He's one of them too. He can't be trusted. None of them can. They're going to kill you. They took your gun. They-
Out of nowhere he remembered the promise he'd made to Elle: I'll be back.
"Mike?" Leo asked again, genuine concern on his face. "What did they do to you?"
Mike turned to speak but could not find the words; lost again in the overwhelming sense that he belonged here, among them; torn between the urge to just give in, and the atrocities he had seen which had been attributed to them. Why else would they have run if not out of guilt; why else claim a murderer dead when he was still alive-
He shook his head in reply, wanting a way out of the tumultuous confusion of his mind, just wanting things to make sense, and to be safe and not to die...
"Do they know we're here?" Adam asked.
Mike shook his head. "They said you killed people," he said weakly, almost hopefully, suddenly wanting so much to be proved wrong. He felt the pull to be included in this odd family; felt too his outsider status, wanting it if they turned out to be as thought, but even then, perhaps not...
Adam rolled his eyes. "And you believed them?" he asked. "They've been on our case since the beginning. We haven't done a thing to deserve it, other than being part of some guy's revenge fantasy because some serial killer pissed him off. And now they got you too. Perfect."
"But then... why are you hiding?" Mike asked.
"To get away from them," Leo said.
"And to get away from Sylar," Spock added. "Whom we have reason to suspect is only alive again because of you."
"What?"
"There was a room," Leo said. "It had a sign on it that said 'dead people and serial killer'-"
"Yeah," Mike said. "I saw that. But they were all dead-"
"One of them was Sylar," Leo said. "We killed him by sticking a knife into the back of his head. He has the ability to heal; without that knife he would have quickly recovered."
Mike felt a slow dread rise in him.
"Did you take out the knife?" Leo asked.
Mike blinked. "I thought... I didn't know..."
"Answer the question," Spock said.
Mike nodded.
Adam muttered some silent curse. "Why," he asked. "Why would you do that?"
"It looked painful..."
"He was dead!"
"I'm sorry-"
"Yeah," Adam said harshly. "Tell that to everyone Sylar killed since then. Tell that to Smudge, who's spent the whole morning sitting and crying in that corner because his boyfriend's dead, just because you thought that a knife in a dead body looked painful."
"I... I can help clear your names," Mike said. "I'll tell them it was my fault and-"
"Do you really think they'll listen to you?" Adam asked. "Look in the mirror. You're one of us. They hate us. I'm guessing it wasn't you who beat you up like that. They were using you, you played right into it, and you're not going back to them to screw it up further. I hope you like sandwiches."
Adam got up and stalked out the door.
Mike stood awkwardly beneath the gazes of the others and wished that he were somewhere else.
"I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm really, really sorry..."
Smudge ignored him, curled up in the corner with his face buried in the pillows, his mind still struggling to come to terms with the giant emptiness he felt inside.
Leo came over and placed a hand on Mike's shoulder, guiding him out to the bathroom. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."
*
CHAPTER FIFTEEN >>