Originally published in installments on LiveJournal based on a prompt with the following requirements: Claire meets Gabriel before he becomes Sylar; he does not become Sylar in the story; they have all their abilities; Gabriel is the sweet, socially awkward, shy type; Gabriel is a virgin (or at least very inexperienced).
A strong musty smell hit Claire as she stepped into the "Clock Shop," as announced by the gaudy sign affixed to a nearby fire exit. The sign, complete with bent arrow and large analogue clock outlined in neon, promised something Kitsch and just old enough to be unfashionable. But inside, Claire felt as if she had gone even further back in time, to an era when plastic had not yet been invented. The dark wooden shelves and brass display units were full of old clocks; carriage clocks in gilt cases, mantel clocks made of solid wood, expensive-looking clocks encrusted with shiny stones; clocks on shelves, clocks on the walls, even a row of clocks showing different time zones above the main window. Every one of them seemed to be ticking out of unison, filling the air with discordant clicks that did nothing to alleviate Claire's thudding headache.
It seemed an unlikely place to find Sylar, but the Company's file on him listed this ancient shop as his place of work before his power manifested. There were even records of the surveillance Claire's father Noah Bennet had conducted on this shop and Sylar's nearby apartment. Reading those records had made Claire's blood run cold as she realised how Bennet and Elle Bishop had been ordered to trick Sylar into revealing how his ability worked -- by making him kill again. Sylar claimed this was what had turned him into a monster.
"Sorry, we're closed!" called someone from behind a partition in the middle of the room.
Claire reached for the gun concealed in her purse. It seemed mundane to use a gun against Sylar. God knows, she'd tried everything else. But if Hiro's teleportation effort had been correct, this should be at least one year before Sylar's powers manifested and he started his interminable killing spree.
"I'm looking for Gabriel Gray," she said.
The curtain in the partition drew open and a young man looked out at her in surprise. Claire almost didn't recognise him. Sylar's thick eyebrows were obscured by a pair of black-framed glasses, making his long chin seem more prominent, but giving his clean-shaven features a fresh, innocent look. His hair was short and parted to one side, like some movie star from the Fifties, and she noticed he had sideburns.
Claire was equally puzzled by the rest of his appearance as he approached her. His clothing matched the old-fashioned hairstyle; a striped white shirt, high-waisted brown slacks, and a navy blue vest that looked like the kind of thing Claire's adoptive grandfather would have worn. He was carrying a grey velvet jacket.
He looked her over briefly, appreciatively. Men still did that sometimes, even though Claire felt as if she had aged twenty years in one month.
"I'm Gabriel Gray," he said, putting on the velvet jacket. "Can I help you, miss? I'm about to go out."
For a split second, Claire thought this must be a case of mistaken identity. Part of her believed that this nerd who dressed like her grandfather couldn't possibly be Sylar. His manner seemed gentle and his familiar voice lacked the sneer that had become so ingrained since Sylar had re-emerged. But Claire knew this was the only way she could be sure to prevent what was going to happen.
She pulled out the gun.
"I'm sorry. I need to kill you," she said, aiming at his head.
"Woah! What the--?" The man raised his hands and backed away. "Listen, I think you've got the wrong guy. If you want the stuff, help yourself." He indicated all the clocks around them. "I'm insured. There's no need to kill me."
"I'm from the future," explained Claire, still keeping the gun on him. "A future where you are the worst serial killer ever known. You've killed over eighty people. Including my entire family." She choked up at the memory. "You even killed my dog!"
"Look, I'm sorry if you--" He paused. "Wait, did you say you were from the future?" His demeanour relaxed visibly and he smiled. "Did Mike set you up to do this? Because if so, you can tell him I still think Terminator is a crap movie."
"This isn't a joke!"
Claire fired a warning shot past his head. She was never entirely sure afterwards why she hadn't simply shot him dead, but at that moment she needed more than anything else to make him understand that she was telling the truth. The shot shattered one of the dirty roof panels at the back of the shop.
Gray stared at the broken panel, then back at Claire.
"Okay. Look, let's talk about this," he said, raising his hands again. Claire flinched, but forced herself to relax when she remembered that he had no offensive powers at this time. "You're looking for a Gabriel Gray who is a serial killer. Well, that's not me. I mean, seriously. I've never killed more than a fly. I certainly wouldn't kill someone's dog. I like dogs. And I don't kill people."
"I know," said Claire. "I came back to a time before you killed anyone, to prevent what you've done."
Gray shook his head. His tone was conciliatory, but Claire could tell he didn't believe her story. "Right. You came back in time. And how exactly did you do this?"
"One of my friends has… had the ability to teleport through time. He worked out a way of sending me back."
"To let you do the dirty work on your own?" said Gray softly.
Claire swallowed hard and lowered the gun. "He was sick. Dying. Using his ability made him sicker, but he just had enough energy to send one person here."
Gray frowned; something she had said was giving him pause. He moved over to adjust a clock on the wall. Startled by the sudden movement, Claire pointed the gun at him again.
Gray raised his hands in submission, but his head was lowered and his expression less calm. He was looking at Claire from under his brows; a typical Sylar mannerism only slightly softened by the glasses.
"You said he had an 'ability'," said Gray thoughtfully. "Is this anything to do with Dr Chandra Suresh and his research?"
Panic suddenly seized Claire. This couldn't be a year before his first murder if he knew Suresh already. The clock he had been fiddling with bore the date: April 26th. Sylar's old Primatech file said that he had killed his first victim, Brian Davis, on April 27th.
"You know Dr Suresh," she said, unable to hide her disappointment that Hiro had landed her in 2006, not 2005.
"Yes, in fact, I'm going to see him now," said Gray, his demeanour changing completely. He spoke with enthusiasm. "Have you read his book? Isn't it intriguing? The idea of evolved humans, each with their own unique abilities. Dr Suresh thinks I might be one of them. He just can't work out what my ability is yet."
"Intuitive aptitude," said Claire coldly. At Gray's puzzled look, she added, "You can understand how things work just by looking at them."
Gray got a distant look in his eye. "Yes, I can," he said with a hint of a smile. "I always could. Everyone said it was weird… But I always felt I was special." He looked at Claire. "How do you know what my ability is anyway? Oh, yes, I forgot. You're from the future. The future where I'm a serial killer with a really good understanding of clocks."
Despite the note of sarcasm in his voice, Gray's expression was gentle. He glanced at the time.
"Look, this is really interesting," he said, "but I do want to see Dr Suresh. He's going to run an EEG test on me. If what you say is true, I think it could help if we tell him what my ability is." He paused and smiled at her. "Why don't you put that gun away and come with me, um…?"
"Claire," she replied, almost immediately wishing she'd used a pseudonym.
"Claire," he repeated with a smile. "Nice name. I'm Gabriel."
In spite of herself, Claire returned his smile. "I know."
* * * * *
"So, they don't have money in the future?" asked Gabriel.
He pocketed the change the driver had given him and sat down beside Claire. To Claire's absolute astonishment, Gabriel did not own a car and apparently didn't believe in taking cabs. As a result, they were travelling to Dr Suresh's apartment by bus.
"Of course they have money in the future," said Claire. "It's only four years in the future. I just didn't think I'd need change for a bus."
"Four years isn't much of a leap, really. I'd have gone back to a different time." Claire could tell that Gabriel was in a good mood. "You know, the 19th century or something. To see history in action."
"I'm not on vacation," said Claire tersely. "And I'm not lying. Look."
She rummaged in her bag and pulled out her student ID. Gabriel observed it with vague interest.
"2009-2010," he read. "Okay, it looks real, though I'm not up on colleges in D.C." He shrugged. "I guess if I have a magical power to understand clocks, someone could have the power to bend time. Though I'd have to say my ability is a bit more probable. I mean, if it's that easy to flash about through time, why don't we meet time-travellers more often? Also, if you've come back to change the past, how do you know you need to change the past, since you've come from the future you presumably changed? In theory, once the timeline has been changed, you shouldn't remember the way things were. So you wouldn't need to come back."
Claire shook her head; the headache that had plagued her since the time jump was coming back. She hadn't expected Gabriel to argue with her. But then she hadn't planned on having a conversation with him.
"I don't know about the theory," she said. "All I know is that in practice, if you go back in time, you remember the time you came from. You make your change, you go back and… there you are in a different reality."
"So how were you planning to get back?"
"I wasn't."
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. "You were just going to murder me and what -- stick around to suffer the consequences?"
"Something like that."
Gabriel scratched his temple; Claire noticed idly that he had a chicken pox scar just above his glasses. She rubbed her forehead, half wishing she hadn't talked Hiro into this stupid plan. Killing Sylar would have been easy -- she'd technically done it four times already -- but she couldn't murder this innocent man. Her best course of action now was to stay with Gabriel as much as possible and stop him from ever turning into Sylar.
"And another thing," said Gabriel. "Isn't there a chance that you might bump into your former self?"
"Unlikely. I was a high-school cheerleader in Texas in 2006."
Gabriel looked puzzled. "A cheerleader? You don't look that young. I mean, it isn't that you don't look young and obviously, you're a student. It's just… I didn't think you were that young. I figured you were a senior or something."
"No. I'm a freshman."
"Okay…"
He seemed disappointed and Claire couldn't help smiling. "Oh, come on, I'm not that much younger than you."
"It's been a while since I was a freshman," he said sheepishly. "I'm twenty-nine."
"Oh," said Claire. "Right."
It made sense; Sylar had said something about being practically twice her age. Claire remembered how he had laughed at her when he said that and followed it with a crude remark about playing her 'Daddy'.
Claire looked out of the window. Miles away, at the other end of the country, her family were enjoying their last months of apparently happy family life. But even that was a lie. Claire would soon be getting the first inkling of her ability; Sandra's mind was already full of holes; Noah had already spent years deceiving and killing. And Lyle… well, Lyle was just living his own little life, oblivious to the tragedy unfolding around him.
Tears welled in Claire's eyes. It had been over a month, but nothing would ever erase the memory of what Sylar had done.
"I'm sorry," said Gabriel, patting her awkwardly on the back. Claire flinched, but relaxed; this wasn't Sylar. "I-- If you're really from… well, I'm really sorry."
Claire didn't trust herself to say anything. She remembered her last view of Sylar, dressed entirely in black, holding his hand out, palm forward and sparkling bright blue, as he slowly tortured Noah Bennet to death.
"Why did he do it?" asked Gabriel after a pause.
"It's kind of complicated to explain," said Claire. She didn't want to dwell on the motives for Sylar's specific vendetta against the Bennets and Petrellis. "I guess the short version is that all his powers drove him insane and he reached a point where he just didn't want to stop killing."
"Powers?" said Gabriel with interest. "Not just the one?"
Claire hesitated. She didn't know when Sylar had discovered his ability to absorb other powers. The realisation could have come before he met Davis, prompting his first crime. In that case, telling Gabriel the truth might encourage him to try the method for himself, and she would be back to square one.
On the other hand, Sylar might have realised what he could do only after he had murdered Davis. Hiro seemed to think that Sylar had felt genuine remorse for that first murder. Peter seemed to think that even after he became Sylar, he had wanted to control his thirst for power. In fact, Peter seemed to understand an awful lot about Sylar and even thought they could talk to him…
Well, Peter and Hiro had always been a bit naïve and their opinions were based on visions and visits to a future which had never come to pass. However, there was a faint possibility that foreknowledge might prevent Gabriel from embarking on a killing spree.
"Your ability allows you to understand how other people's abilities work," she said finally. The truth was generally the simplest explanation; if there was one thing she knew about Sylar, it was that he did not like being lied to.
"Then why kill them? To eliminate the competition?"
Gabriel seemed curious but detached; he still didn't think himself capable of murder. It confirmed Claire's hope that he had had no idea he could acquire powers before he actually murdered someone. She wondered if that first murder might have been an accident.
"No, you need to see inside their brains to acquire their power."
Claire let the sentence hang in the air between them. Gabriel seemed to be digesting this new information, his features serious behind his thick glasses.
"So I'm able to take other people's powers," he said thoughtfully. "By observing the area that controls their abilities and using my power to understand how it works. Why would I want to? What kind of other powers do people have, aside from time travel?"
Noticing that his reaction was curiosity rather than disgust, Claire decided not to let him dwell on the possibilities. "Every ability is different. Some are good, some not so good."
"Do you have one?"
"I'd rather not talk about it," she said.
She was grateful when Gabriel didn't press her. Claire looked out of the window again, losing herself in the memories. Sylar's relentless pursuit of her culminating in him cutting her open and taking her ability. Sylar hovering in the middle of her mother's living room, hands alight, eyes evil under his dark brows. Sylar, who despite all her protests to the contrary, had succeeded in turning her into a killer and making himself the most important person in her life.
When she turned to look at Gabriel again, he was watching her. He lowered his eyes hastily when he caught her gaze, as if embarrassed to be staring.
"He really killed your entire family?" he asked.
"Yes." Claire swallowed hard. "He really did."
"Do I look--" said Gabriel, before shaking his head. "Dumb question. Of course I look like him."
"Actually, you don't. Not really." Claire looked over his mismatched clothing and neat hairstyle. "Sylar didn't wear glasses. And he didn't dress like that either."
She wasn't entirely sure why she was talking about Sylar in the past tense. It felt good, though. Gabriel laughed, baring his straight white teeth in a self-deprecating smile.
"I see. Inspecting people's brains improves your eyesight, does it?" He looked down shyly. "He called himself Sylar? Ironic, I guess. Gustav Sylar was a German watchmaker; died in 1936. He would have pronounced it Zu-lar, obviously, being German, but the English pronunciation is generally used these days. I've been fixing one of his watches for seven years… It's a strange choice."
Gabriel's immediate recognition of the name made Claire's heart sink. He wasn't yet Sylar, but everything was there; his delight at having an ability, the curiosity about other powers, the name. And although they hadn't touched on it, Claire knew that Gabriel had the same messed up family background.
Claire was starting to realise the extent of the situation she had placed herself in. She wondered what she was going to do with the rest of her life from this moment on. It wasn't as if she could spend all her time following Gabriel around to make sure he didn't kill anyone. And there were more practical matters to consider; she had brought her purse, but her ATM card wouldn't work at this time, and she had nowhere to stay.
Perhaps sensing that Claire was lost in unpleasant thoughts, Gabriel squeezed her hand. His large fingers curled around hers felt good; Claire couldn't remember the last time someone had offered her such a simple gesture of comfort.
"Now I know what's going on, I promise I'll fix it," he said quietly.
It didn't entirely make sense, but Claire let him hold her hand and hoped fervently that he was telling the truth.
* * * * *
Claire was surprised to find that she had already been to Dr Suresh's apartment. As Gabriel opened the building's main door for her, she remembered going there just the previous year, to warn Matt Parkman about Nathan's plans to round up all the people with abilities. It reminded her of a time when all her family was alive, save only her biological mother, and when she had thought -- not for the first, nor the last time -- that Sylar was dead. It felt like a lifetime ago.
Concerned that Suresh might already be aware of her existence in Texas, Claire asked Gabriel to change her name to 'Sandra' as they went up to the apartment. Gabriel seemed to take this new oddity in his stride. When Dr Suresh opened the door and gave Claire a surprised -- and decidedly unwelcoming -- look, Gabriel introduced her as "my girlfriend, Sandra". He even gave her an awkward little hug for added emphasis.
Suresh seemed to accept the explanation, though he was visibly put out by Claire's presence. He offered them strong tea that was so hot Claire could feel her upper lip burn as she drank it. As was her habit these days, she welcomed the dull pain without comment. Gabriel didn't even taste the drink, putting his cup aside as he sat on the chair opposite Suresh's computer.
Claire was disappointed by Mohinder's father; he lacked his son's good looks and mad scientist demeanour. He was more like an irascible schoolteacher and ordered her to sit in a corner while he hooked Gabriel up to some kind of scanning device on his PC. Maybe he thought that people not directly related to his research weren't worth talking to.
As she headed for her seat, Claire noticed a large map on the wall. Multiple coloured threads connected a constellation of pins, each representing an individual person, most with photographs attached. After checking that Suresh and Gabriel were still occupied with the scan, Claire surreptitiously tore the photograph of herself off the map. Suresh obviously hadn't recognised her -- hardly surprising as she was about fourteen on the picture -- but she didn't want Gabriel to know for sure that she had an ability.
Suresh asked Gabriel to stay still while the machine registered his brain waves. Sitting behind Suresh, Claire had a clear view of the coloured lines scrolling across the screen. Some were fluctuating so wildly that they intersected. Suresh was taking notes on a pad, occasionally clicking on particularly interesting zigzags. A couple of times, Gabriel caught Claire's eye and smiled at her, but that made the zigzags more pronounced and Suresh told him to stop.
"Why do you repair watches, Gabriel?" asked Suresh after a few minutes. The wild fluctuations seemed to have calmed down and he had stopped taking notes.
Gabriel sighed. "My father didn't really give me a choice."
"Yes, but why not do what you want to do?" insisted Suresh. "Why not change?"
"You use a phrase in your book ... evolutionary imperative," said Gabriel.
"That which we are destined to do."
"Sea turtles die on the same exact beach where they were born, lions slaughter gazelles, spiders eat their young. They don't want to. They have to."
The impassioned way Gabriel spoke sent shivers down Claire's spine. Sylar had used that same phrase once, when she asked him why he had killed Nathan. "It's my evolutionary imperative, Claire. Like father, like son." He had then told her about his real father and what he had done in front of his young son. Gabriel presumably harboured the same traumatic memory.
"But the irony is that, as humans, we are indeed capable of change," continued Gabriel. He smiled at Claire over Suresh's shoulder, giving the lines one last twitch. "In a heartbeat, new possibilities can arise, a new beginning becomes achievable. The world becomes less bleak. The future less set in stone."
Dr Suresh seemed mesmerised by the readings on his computer screen. "Indeed."
"Is everything all right?" asked Gabriel, concerned by the doctor's lack of attention. "Am I healthy?"
"Yes, healthy, of course," said Suresh dismissively. He unhooked Gabriel from the machine; Claire could hear the excitement in his voice. "Mr Gray, you are more special than I could ever have imagined. Your readings are extraordinary… off the scale… even allowing for any effect caused by your girlfriend's presence."
The doctor stood and had the audacity to shoot her a dirty look over his shoulder, as if her mere existence were impeding his research. Knowing what she did about his involvement at the Coyote Sands detention centre, Claire was tempted to ask about the tests he had once run on innocent people with abilities. On the other hand, Suresh clearly had no recollection of those events; his current haphazard research was no doubt the result of half-erased memories.
"So did you get what you wanted?" said Gabriel, looking up at the doctor like a student about to receive an award. "Do you know what my ability is?"
Suresh shook his head. "No, I'm afraid my research hasn't gone far enough to detect specific abilities yet... You haven't noticed anything particular, anything that might have changed since I measured you yesterday?"
"I think I may have a greater understanding of how… people work," said Gabriel tentatively. "It's something I've always felt about inanimate objects, but it seems to have changed. Blossomed, if you will. Perhaps the knowledge of my potential has allowed me to realise it."
Despite his initial enthusiasm, Suresh sounded disappointed by Gabriel's ability. "This isn't an ability that will be easy to demonstrate to others. Not unless you can read minds?" he added hopefully.
Gabriel winced. "Um, I don't think so. It's more of an understanding of why your genetic code has made you bald, that kind of thing."
Claire couldn't work out whether this revelation was sincere or he was simply extrapolating an innocent ability from what she had told him on the bus.
"Well, that would certainly prove useful to a geneticist," said Suresh with a chuckle. "We will see if the MRI and CAT scans reveal anything new, but in the meantime, I would like to take some blood to compare your DNA with some of the other samples I have collected."
Suresh seemed a lot happier now that Gabriel's potential was confirmed. He filled a couple of vials with Gabriel's blood and pressed a small cotton ball to the puncture, instructing Gabriel to hold it in place. Suresh turned away to note Gabriel's details on the vial, then lifted the cotton to peer at the place where the needle had been inserted.
"I don't think you'll need a plaster, Mr Gray," he said cheerfully. "I can't even see where the puncture was."
Claire's blood ran cold, but neither Gabriel nor Suresh seemed to notice anything unusual.
"Now, why don't I let you and your girlfriend enjoy the spring sunshine?" said Suresh, opening the door for them. "I'll call you tomorrow if we can have the scanner at Columbia."
Claire and Gabriel walked down to the street in silence. They had just come out of the building when Claire noticed a man stepping out of a cab. Her heart missed a beat as she realised it was Noah Bennet, alive and well in this past, and leaning into the cab to pay his fare. Any moment now, he would straighten up and see her. Despite the intervening years, it was unlikely that he wouldn't recognise Claire and there was nowhere to hide. Taking inspiration from dozens of unimaginative movies, Claire wrapped her arms around Gabriel's neck and pulled his head down for a kiss.
Although Gabriel was probably surprised, he played along, finding her lips with his own as he folded his arms around her. The difference in their heights and the fact that they were standing in the middle of the sidewalk made the kiss awkward. But it had been over a year since anyone had kissed her and Gabriel's soft lips on her mouth made Claire's body tingle. She kissed his lips without deepening the touch, and Gabriel responded in kind.
Claire broke the kiss once she was satisfied that her father had entered the building without seeing her. Gabriel straightened up and Claire was amazed to find that the tops of his cheeks, just under his glasses, were red. Gabriel was blushing.
"Oh, wow," he said, adjusting his glasses even though they weren't askew. "I thought people only did that in the movies." He looked around. "Who were we avoiding?"
"What makes you think I was avoiding someone?" asked Claire innocently.
Gabriel looked at her sheepishly as they headed for the bus stop. "Girls aren't usually overcome by my animal magnetism within a couple of hours of meeting me."
Given his dress sense and the boring life he seemed to lead, Claire suspected that not many girls were overcome by his animal magnetism at any point in their acquaintance. Knowing that Sylar could not be entirely a product of insanity, Claire thought it was a shame it had taken a series of murders to reveal Gabriel's potential in this respect. She examined this incongruous thought and decided that she didn't want to know why she thought Sylar was a representation of Gabriel's 'animal magnetism'.
Gabriel's face had returned to its normal colour by the time they reached the bus shelter. Looking up at him, Claire was concerned to find that she could no longer see the scar on his temple. On the other hand, it was hard to be sure, since he was a lot taller than her. It was also possible that the puncture from Suresh's blood test had been genuinely too small to see in the dim light of his apartment. Claire tried to dismiss her concerns about Gabriel's possible ability to heal.
"So who was the guy with the glasses?" asked Gabriel, looking out for a bus.
"My father."
There was no reason not to tell him; that particular feud hadn't started yet. Gabriel seemed about to ask more about Claire's father, but he noticed a bus coming around the corner of the street. It wasn't the one they had taken from Gabriel's shop.
"Listen, I'm heading home to Queens and that's my bus over there," said Gabriel. "Do you… have somewhere to go?"
Claire looked at the bus still stuck in the early evening traffic and realised he was right; she had nowhere to go. Her plan had ended with killing Sylar. Gabriel was looking at her expectantly; the bus was approaching and she had to make a decision.
"I guess I could try and find my uncle Peter," she said finally. "I don't remember his address anymore, but he was living in New York at this time and… he's a good man, he'll help me."
Claire wondered if Sylar had killed Peter in her time. She thought about Peter's impassioned speech concerning the 'unconscionable thing' that Parkman had done to Sylar at Noah and Angela's behest. He had seemed so certain that he could convince Sylar to stop. She wondered if Sylar had listened to him and spared his life. Now she would never know.
"You can come back to my place and look him up on the Internet," offered Gabriel. "Nothing creepy, I promise. I'll make you some dinner and you can decide where you're staying tonight. I think we have some things to discuss anyway."