A Note From Lara- This is just a little thing I felt needed saying... especially given Samuel's final words from The Final Stage about how Claire was just a lure for someone else. Set immediately after 4x03 "Ink" with spoilers through "Hysterical Blindness."

"We have a problem," Lydia said matter-of-factly as Samuel dropped down into a threadbare armchair in his trailer.

Samuel ran a hand over his eyes tiredly. This had already been a long, horrible day, what with the marking of Peter Petrelli and the violent confrontation with the wealthy owners of his childhood home he hadn't really intended to have. "What is it?" he asked.

The beautiful blonde woman slid onto the chair next to him. "There's a problem... with a blonde," she admitted after a long hesitation. "The one in the park tonight, right? The musician."

Samuel nodded. "Yes, you showed her to me. Emma."

Lydia frowned at the name. "That's her."

"And why should one of our cousins cause such a legitimate problem to us that you felt the need to tell me so late?"

Hazel eyes fixed him in a penetrating stare, and Samuel felt once more the power of Lydia's gaze, both to terrify and move him. Even at her most serious, there was something dangerous and seductive about his clairvoyant. It was why he chose to keep her close.

"Emma is going to derail it all," she said matter-of-factly. "All the plans you had for Petrelli? They're not going to work if you stick to your intentions. Emma's going to throw a kink in it."

"Indeed?" he asked, feigning idleness in his curiosity. "How so?"

Lydia shrugged. "Right after you left the park tonight, I felt it. Something changed. You weren't the only one there- Peter Petrelli saw her playing, too. They've met. He's headed down a different path now."

Samuel couldn't deny that he was intrigued. "What sort of path?"

"He's going to fall in love with her," Lydia said matter-of-factly. "You know I sense connections between people... even ones that don't exist yet. The bond between them... it's like nothing I've ever seen before. There's no way a guy like that is going to abandon her to come join us." She shook her head gracefully and a cascade of dark blonde hair scattered across her bare shoulders, glinting in the dim light. "Petrelli's a lost cause."

Samuel smirked. "I don't think so," he said. "Tomorrow, when Miss Coolidge goes to work, have Edgar leave a cello in her apartment."

Lydia raised a questioning eyebrow. "Scaring her with her own ability isn't going to help," she insisted. "That will only drive her right into Petrelli's arms."

It was an excellent point. But even Lydia didn't know everything. "Please, Lydia, do as I say, and everything will come right in the end." And that took care of her trust in his orders. Well, not entirely- because of her particular ability, Lydia had never trusted him as much as the others. But as long as she remembered that he was in charge, she would do what he said, and that was all that mattered at present.

But how to deal with Petrelli? Samuel skimmed mentally through everything Lydia had told him about the vastly interconnected group of people they sought to welcome. It was this web of complex loyalties and friendships and heartbreak and truth and lies that made this recruitment so much more difficult than any preceding venture. All the people he had previously bring into the family had been alone, friendless, and terrified. But Nakamura, Parkman, Bennet, all of them were so tightly bound together by a hopelessly tangled past, that to recruit one meant finding a way to recruit them all. And ironically, Samuel thought, Petrelli was the keystone. He had ties to all of them, and without him they drifted apart. He was their rock...

The irony of the thought drifted across Samuel's mind. Peter Petrelli, the Rock upon which they founded their alliances. It almost seemed contrived. Although, given what Lydia had told him about the man's deeply disturbed precognitive mother, it might be. But the empath wasn't just the center of their twined destinies- he cared about them as deeply as many of them seemed to about him. So, then. To bring Peter to them, he would have to bring one of the rest of them in first. Which one?

Lydia had grown tired of waiting for further instructions and flowed to her feet. She was nearly at the door when Samuel said, "Wait, my dear. Would you please tell Becky to come see me? I want to speak to her about the Claire Bennet situation..."