Title: Side Effect
Disclaimers: I don't own any supernatural powers or anything else to do with Heroes.
Genre: hurt/comfort, romance, classical sickfic for the sake of it.

Rating: nothing you should hide from.
Summary/Set: post an AU "Invisible Thread", where Sylar is not made to assume the form of Nathan, but held captive.

Pairing: eventual Sylair.

Note: inspired by queenoftheoutlands' Exposed. Thank you for reminding me that writing and reimagining scenarios is fun!

Claire followed the man she'd always regard as her father down the stairs into the underground facility. Here they were, in the newly designed labyrinth of laboratories connecting to the cells containing some of the most interestingly evolved and dangerous people on the planet. The place wasn't Odessa, Texas, but it wasn't all that far away either.

The president's new Company built its secret containment facility near Albany, Texas, where Noah located a site suitable for hiding the deceptively run down looking building behind a row of factory outlets and warehouses.

Their footsteps panged over the voice of the distant humming of electricity making sure the prisoners stayed where they were and the smell was reminiscent of that in a hospital.

Noah keyed in the security code to open the door leading to the corridor in the research unit with a strong sense of deja vu. Primatech Paper might've been wiped out of existence and the government was not hunting down anyone with powers anymore, but the most dangerous of them still had to be kept under close control and what place could've been more suitable, than a replica of the old facility.

Noah Bennett glanced at his daughter, worried at how she would react. No matter how indestructible she was and how much she's been through, technically she was not quite an adult just yet. He had opposed as much as he could to Claire taking up a job at the Company instead of going to university, but eventually had to give in after both her and Angela insisted, having become ever more interested in her granddaughter ever since Nathan passed away.

"Why night shift?" Noah shook his head, even more dischuffed with the nature of the job Claire took, than if it would've been something else.

"Don't worry dad," Claire gave him an encouraging smile, "you know I discovered I don't need as much sleep as others do, quick regeneration and all that...I want something to pass the time."

Noah nodded, acknowledging her wishes, but not agreeing. "Well, you do your round once, then it's just watching them on the cameras. Let's get a run over-Cell1, male, Eric Doyle, you know all about his abilities. Cell2, male, Baron Samedi, impenetrable skin. Cell3, female, Michaela Geraldi, energy absorption. Cell4, female, Constance Blake, command of the dead. Cell5, female, Juliana Harmon, defying gravity. Cell6, well, that's cell 6..." Noah watched his daughter intently, introductions were not neccessary.

Claire had not been all that delighted when she found out Sylar was to be kept alive. It was the president's decision that nobody with special abilities would be hunted down without good cause, and that's what Angela, Peter, Claire and Noah were trying to convince him of in the first place. But it came with a price. The president also decided that no one was to be executed either.

Noah wasn't entirely certain the serial killer wasn't the reason Claire wanted this job-to see him secured away safely every day.

The blonde approached the secure glass with Sylar on the other side. She had prepared herself in mind for this moment, ever since she decided she would get herself employed by the company. She was ready for his quips, several answers already made up in her head, ready to toughen up and feel nothing when normally it was only the serial killer that induced palpable fear in her.

All that preparation however, deemed unnecessary as Sylar did not seem to notice her. Certainly, most of the prisoners were either heavily sedated, or staring into the nothingness impassive as she had seen exactly with the occupants of the previous cells, but she had somehow expected more from Sylar.

He was lying motionless in front of his tiny toilet with ivs connected to both his hands. Of course. Nobody would want to take chances. Claire gave a little sigh, then turned away, feeling somewhat relieved at the sight, but Noah stopped her, not at all relaxed himself. "I don't know whether we can believe he's affected by the drugs. Not that much."

"What makes you say that?"

"Didn't he escape before when he was supposed to be under sedation? Use his powers through the walls? We have learned the lesson, we're giving him a lot more of the new inhibiting formula, than the others. It works like a dream, this place is unquestionably boring ever since we first used it on someone. None of them can as much as lift a finger without being allowed to. But I'm never sure about him, I'll never be."

"It's understandable," gave Claire idly, watching as Sylar hands moved to cradle his stomach. What was that about not raising a finger? Oh, it must've been figure of speech. "Any chance you could give him more of that inhibiting formula? You know, just to be safe."

Noah shook his head, "apparently not. There are normally adverse effects, most patients had some of them, such as dizziness, irregular breathing, fevers, nausea, vomiting, acute stomach pains. Sylar spends most of his time kneeling next to that lav, throwing up and in between he's just lying there exhausted. All in all, I'm not certain though. He'd simulated dying on us before during tests a couple of years ago. I think he's trying to convince us he's weak till we are not as careful with him as before...Claire!!! What on earth are you doing!!" He jumped to his adoptive daughter, punching in the security code on Sylar's door.

Not expecting such a move, he had been a fraction too late and could only pull his gun as protection as Claire entered the small room Sylar was in. "What's this supposed to mean!?!" He whispered, hoping the captive indeed was oblivious to the world around him.

"You were wondering if he's leading you on, if he really is unwell. I believe I can tell you if it's a trick or not."

"How?"

"I can feel him, dad. To a certain extent I can feel him through the power he took from me. We are connected as long as we are. I have never tested it before, but somehow I'm quite sure that I'd be able to tell if he's regenerating works."

"Claire..." Sylar's unused, feeble voice distracted them, "Claire, there's no place I'd rather be, than here with you. I knew you'd come one day..." He tried to give his best, nonchalant smile, grabbing the rim of the toilet to try to sit up for the redoubtable visitor. "I told you I could show you that you were all monsters," he pointed towards the cannules in his veins, especially that Claire was now squatting down next to him to do who knows what. Not that he could oppose or anything, but at least nobody could accuse him of not biting back at least with his tongue. "I thought your hobby was to try killing me, not torture."

Not minding Sylar one bit, she reached out to lift the originally white, but now rather stained pajama top up they've been keeping the prisoners in, so that she can touch his stomach.

The killer's brows knit together slightly, the drug induced haze making his brain functions a little slow. If he would've had to admit, it was, that he had no idea what the Bennett girl was up to.

"He...has stomach cramps, dad. Very bad stomach cramps," Claire established a little surprised herself not only by her findings, but by how their common ability made her so in tune with everything that happened inside Sylar's body. Any more of this, and she'd be in pain herself.

With that, she stood and before Sylar could figure out whether the new developments were ultimately good or bad for him, Noah ushered his daughter out the door. Sylar was suffering like he should, still, chances were never to be taken with the world's most dangerous man.

tbc