What happened after Claire threw herself off the top of the Ferris wheel? Did she make the right decision or did she ruin every chance of having a normal life? Will Noah still be able to protect his daughter after she revealed her powers to the world? Can Peter still be the hero he always wanted to be? Is there a place in this brave new world for Sylar, even after all the terrible things that he has done?

I've tried to explain my ideas of what happened after the last episode from the fourth season in the form of a story. Please, forgive me for the grammar and/or spelling mistakes. I'm from the Netherlands and I'm still working on improving my English. All I can say is that I hope you'll like my story and if you do, please don't hesitate to review ;).

It starts right where we left off, with Claire revealing her ability to the world and then it continues as we follow her, Noah, Peter and Sylar. All four of them have to deal with this brave new world in their own way. It's not always going to be easy. In fact, it's going to be a real struggle for some of them.

"Keep the cameras rolling!"

"But shouldn't we get some help?"

"She told us to keep the cameras on her, so that's what we'll do!"

"Shut up, look! She's standing up."

And then there was only silence. Every single camera was pointing at her. The injuries from her fall could be seen clearly now that she was standing up. There were wounds all over her face and body and her shoulder seemed to be dislocated. When she noticed this, she grabbed her upper-arm and pulled it back with a snap. Right after she did that, her wounds began to heal instantaneously. Everybody was looking at her. They were all in shock. Never, in their entire lives, had they seen anything like that before.

She looked into the camera that was standing right in front of her and took a deep breath before she spoke. "My name is Claire Bennet and this is attempt number…" she frowned as she thought of a number, but smiled when she couldn't think of anything. "I guess I've kinda lost count." And then she smiled carefully. Please… Don't think I'm weird… She had always wondered about how people would react.

But they didn't. Nobody responded to what Claire had said. Nobody knew how to respond. All these reporters just kept staring at her. The whole situation felt so awkward for Claire. She didn't know what else to say. Did she just make a massive mistake by coming out to the world about her power?

One of the reporters, a tall man with short, dark hair and glasses, scraped his throat with a lot of effort. "Didn't that hurt?" he asked.

Claire shrugged. "No," she answered truthfully.

And then all of a sudden everybody started asking questions. It was difficult for Claire to distinguish one question from the other because they were all shouting them at her, at the same time.

"How did you do that?" a woman asked, who was standing to Claire's right.

"Are you extraterrestrial?" someone else asked.

"Did you know you would survive that fall?"

Claire didn't want to answer any of these dumb questions. She knew that it was something new and extraordinary for them, but they made her feel like an animal in a zoo. For the first time in years she felt, yet again, like a freak. A freak in a freak show.

But she tried. She tried really hard to answer all of them. Her answers were mostly 'yes' and 'no', but at least it was something. As soon as she answered one question, they threw another one at her. She had no idea who had asked what and she started to get a little irritated.

"Stop it!" she blurted.

She had startled some of them, but it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. They just kept coming at her with more and more questions. Please, just stop it.

"Can you die?"

Claire turned around to see who had asked that specific question. It was a woman. She was a bit taller than Claire. The woman was wearing a black jacket and she had her black hair tied back in a knot. Claire didn't want to answer that question either, but it was actually a good one compared to all the others. The answer was 'no', obviously, but she didn't want to think about it for too long. The thought brought bad memories with it.

The woman didn't wait for Claire to answer her question. She started talking a few seconds after Claire had turned around, ignoring the rest of the reporters. They all still wanted answers to their questions, but they could wait. This was more important.

"You don't know me, but my name is Dr Madeline Gibson. I wanna ask you if you'd be interested in telling your story during a press conference at the New York Palace. It'd be great if you could explain everything that happened here tonight at the carnival and the thing you just did."

Claire didn't need any time to think about that. That was exactly what she wanted. She smiled and nodded. "I'd really like that."

"Good. I'll make sure that all these reporters will come to the Palace in about an hour. That way you can have a little breather before we start. Is that what you want?"

Claire nodded again. "Thank you."

Doctor Gibson gave Claire a friendly smile. "No problem." She stepped around her and addressed the reporters. "Ladies and gentlemen…"

While everyone was asked to leave the carnival and go home, Noah Bennet was looking for his daughter. He had to push a lot of people aside to get to her. A couple of reporters kept surrounding her with their giant cameras and microphones, hoping to still get some questions answered. He roughly pushed a man to the side, because he wasn't moving when Noah asked him to.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

When Claire saw him she walked towards him and embraced him as if she hadn't seen him in years, which were really just a couple of minutes.

Noah put his arms around her shoulders and leaned his chin on top of her head. "There's no going back now."

"I know." That wasn't what she wanted anyway, but she had done something her father always feared that she would do, something he had always tried to prevent from happening. She didn't want to hurt him, but there was something she wanted more than that. No longer hiding from the world had always been her deepest desire. She let go of him and took a step back.

"Let's go home," he said desperately. They were done here. If people wanted to ask her more questions, then they would have to wait till some other time. He began to walk away, but Claire didn't seem to be moving. He looked at her, confused.

"Dad," she began carefully, "there'll be a press conference at the Palace. They wanna ask me questions about tonight and about my ability. I said that I would go."

Noah closed his eyes and sighed. Of course there will be a press conference. Claire wanted to show her ability to the world at all costs. As hard as he tried, he could never have kept her secret safe. He wanted her life to be as normal as possible, but it wasn't something that Claire wanted and he had to accept that. "Then I'll be there as well," he said.

A smile appeared on the cheerleader's face. "Let's go," Claire said and she began to walk towards the carnival's exit, her father walking beside her.

"You don't have to say anything, you know. I can answer their questions for you, if you want."

"No," Claire said without looking at her father. "They saw me jump from the Ferris wheel. They'll want to hear my story, but I would appreciate it if you can explain the…" she hesitated. Would her father agree with this? "...explain the work you did for the company."

There was no way he was going to talk about the company. That wouldn't be a very good idea, anyway. But talking about how they dealt with the bad guys could not hurt. "We'll see."

As they walked towards the exit Noah realized that it might be a good idea to have another 'special' with them at the press conference. If Claire was going to tell people about abilities, they needed to know that it wasn't just about regenerating. That it was about so much more.

He stopped abruptly and turned around, his eyes scanning the area. "Claire."

Claire stopped as well and turned to face her father. "Yeah?"

"Where's Peter?" Peter Petrelli would be the most logical option. He was at the carnival, Noah had seen him, had even spoken to him. He was Claire's uncle and he had special powers, or better said 'power' as Peter could only have one ability at the time these days. He was the perfect candidate.

It didn't take him long to find him Peter. The man was standing at the other side of the carnival terrain, near the tent where they found and arrested Samuel Sullivan. But Peter wasn't alone. Standing next to him, was Sylar. The man who had hunted his daughter for so long and when he eventually found her, he took her power. Claire never talked about what had happened that day. But the fact that she didn't want to talk about it, was enough for Noah to know one thing. That man is a psychopath.

Claire had seen them as well. What the hell is Peter doing, standing next to him? They didn't seem to be doing anything, they were just standing there.

"Claire, could you get to the Palace by yourself?"

"What? No! I'm not gonna let you deal with Sylar alone!"

"Please, Claire. You need to focus on that press conference. This won't take long."

"What if he kills you?" she asked.

"I won't let that happen. Come on, Claire. Is there a way for you to get there?"

"I guess I could ask Dr Gibson..."

"Who?"

"She was the one who asked me to come to the press conference." Claire looked around. Dr Gibson was standing just a few yards away. Claire pointed at her. "That's her."

Noah looked at the woman. It seemed like Dr Gibson was talking to some of the reporters. "Is she with the police?"

She didn't say... "I guess..."

"She looks like she knows what she's doing." Noah smiled at his daughter. "Find out if she's with the police and if she is you can go with her. I'll get Peter and we will see you later at the Palace."

"No! I'm not afraid of Sylar! He can't hurt me." She wanted to help, feel useful again.

Noah sighed. He already has. "I know. I'm not planning to ambush Sylar. I just need Peter to come to the press conference."

Yeah, right. She didn't believe him. They both wanted Sylar gone, that was obvious. But what could she do? She needed to be at the New York Palace, to tell the world about her ability. Sylar wasn't going to screw that up as well. "Okay then. Just promise you'll be careful."

"Always."

They shared a brief hug before Claire turned around and walked towards Dr Gibson.

Noah took out his phone and called Lauren. Just like always Lauren answered almost immediately. "Noah?"

"Lauren, I need you to get me something."

"Sure, what do you need?"

"One hypodermic needle. This thing with Sylar ends now."

Next chapter: Facing Your Demons