A/N: I haven't done a fanfic one-shot for a while, so decided that the next 100 Theme Challenge I got would be a fanfic. Smile came up, so here it is. I only just got round to seeing Season Four of Heroes (finally!) and all I could think at the end was "What the hell, Claire!" And then I wondered what kind of impact it would have on everyone else, what moves they'd be forced to make, etc. And...well, this was born. Any and all feedback is welcomed, and I'll return all decent-length reviews. Thanks.
The smile on your face is fixed, forced; it has been since you can remember. Remember – you must try to act normal. Smile when the girl next to you does. Act normal. Act like everyone else. It doesn't matter if you're not, if there is something different about you. They don't have to know. They can't know. After all, if they knew...
If they knew, you would be exiled. Or, worse, captured, experimented on. You know what people are really like. You know what they are capable of. Smile, even when you think of those two marks on your neck, the marks you've had since you were six years old...
The video clip was everywhere.
She couldn't escape it. Every screen across campus was showing it; the blonde rushing up the structure, before throwing herself off to the shock of the reporters. Everywhere she went, she could hear the video, too. The screams and cries as the girl jumped, the sound of her announcing her name for the whole world. It made Naomi cringe. For years, she had acted normal, seemed normal, and now all of that was close to being blown apart.
"Naomi!"
She paused in front of one screen, watching the girl's bones snap back together, the skin heal like the image disappearing from an Etch-a-Sketch. She wanted to cry every time she saw it.
"Naomi!"
"Hey," she muttered, turning to see her friend bounding towards her, a huge grin plastered on his boyish face.
"Have you seen it?" he asked, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. She nodded, and the pair began to walk back through the campus. "Aw, man, what did I tell you? I said they were out there, didn't I?"
It wasn't that long ago that he was telling Naomi his theories on the American Citizens being rounded up, the ones disappearing. "They're not like us," he'd whispered to her in the library. "I reckon they're different, you know? Like they have special powers or something...there's this book, by a Dr. Suresh and..."
And she'd already read it.
She'd had more questions than answers, after, but decided to leave the whole issue alone. After all, she was living a normal life, wasn't she?
A normal life until a few days after he had mentioned it to her. The small, one bedroom flat she lived in had been broken into, and Naomi had found herself surrounded by men. Tasers had been shot into her body and, next thing she knew, she was being woken up by a Japanese man and an Indian doctor. Groggily, she had followed them and the others out, still at a loss as to what had happened.
When she got back to college, her friend's had asked how home had been.
"Fine," she'd replied, before settling back into her mundane, normal life.
"I have to go," she told Carl, quickly. "I have to do some work."
She darted off, leaving Carl standing in her wake, pondering, as usual, Naomi's odd behaviour.
She tried to ignore the groups of people standing around, discussing the video and its implications. The implications for her were so much greater than they were for them, and she envied them for that. She envied them their ignorance, their lack of knowledge.
All she wanted was to be normal.
She rounded a nearby corner and fall against the wall, closing her eyes as she tried to control her breathing. She really couldn't believe this was happening. Naomi was not a nasty person, but right then she felt a rage more powerful than anything she had felt before. At least with the men who had taken her as a child, the agents who had captured her only a few months ago, she could put it down to ignorance. She pitied them. But this girl, this Claire Bennet, was one of them. She should have known better.
Naomi pushed away from the wall and carried on, eyes fixed ahead, eager to get out of the campus and back on her way home.
She stopped, however, when she spotted a boy she'd seen around a few times before. He was staring at one of the screens in fascination, mouth slightly open. The look on his eyes, the look in his face, was one of pure shock, pure horror. Not the curiosity she'd seen on everyone else.
Naomi made a beeline towards him, coming to a stop beside him. He was staring through the window into the canteen, at the screen nearest the window.
"Crazy, isn't it?" she muttered.
The boy turned towards her. His arms were folded across his chest, and she thought she could see drops of sweat forming on his forehead.
"Yeah," he replied, barely even looking at her. "Yeah, crazy."
Before she could say anything, he had darted off, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell as he rounded a corner. She glanced around, made sure no one was watching and then, disappeared.
Well, for all intents and purposes, she disappeared.
She ran forward, at a light jog, until she'd caught up with him. He had gone behind the cafeteria, to an area that was quiet. No students lingered here; after all, there was nothing here. She made sure she was in earshot, keeping her eyes on him as he held the phone up.
"It's me...West..."
West. Well, at least she had a name.
"I never thought she'd actually do it...I don't know. I..." He stopped, looking around again. "What do you think will happen now? Sense? It's too late for that! What was going on anyway?"
She wasn't close enough to hear the rest of the conversation. Instead, she waited as he stood in silence, nodding every couple of seconds. Finally, he spoke again.
"Yeah, I'll be there. See you there."
With that, he hung up, put the phone back into his pocket and shot up into the sky.
She left it a few days before she tried to track him down.
She had to admit, she rarely used Facebook; she'd had few friends in school, she'd wanted to remain hidden, she wanted to keep out of sight. And she did. The only reason she joined was to keep in touch with her best friend from back home, but right then she found herself grateful for its features. Amongst the guys with the name West at her college, she found him. Once she had the Facebook page, she had the information she needed. Full name plus his courses. From his age, she knew he was the same year as her.
All it took then was a quick scan of the schedule posted online, and she knew where he was.
Easy.
Naomi logged off, pushed away from the computer and left her flat, heading back to the campus.
It wasn't a far drive; pretty soon she was there, darting towards the science building. She waited outside the room currently hosting Freshman Bio, and soon she was rewarded.
West was one of the first to leave.
He passed by her, but stopped when she called his name.
He whirled around, and for a second she saw a flicker of fear on his face. Yeah, she thought. Tell me about it. She raised a hand, grinning at him as the look on his face disappeared.
"I need to talk to you about something," she said, quickly.
"Sorry, do I know you?"
"No," she replied, gesturing for them to start walking as other students piled out of the class. Looking confused, West began to walk, and she fell into step beside him. "It's about Claire Bennet."
"Why would I know Claire Bennet?" He spoke too quickly, too fast, and she glanced sideways at him, raising an eyebrow.
"I didn't say you did, West. Anyway, why wouldn't you? Everyone knows that name by now, don't they? The miracle girl who threw herself off a tall...thing and didn't die."
"Oh," he chuckled, the sound forced. "Yeah, that girl. But...why me?"
She glanced around, before grabbing his arm and dragging him into a nearby lecture hall. It was empty inside, and she guessed they had about five minutes if a class were heading to the room. "Because you can fly, West. I saw you."
Instantly, she saw the blood drain out of his face. He stared at her with wide, scared eyes, looking so much like the proverbial deer staring into the metaphorical headlights. She grabbed his hand. "It's okay; watch." His eyes remained fixed on her, the fear disappearing as she did. Just as quickly as she'd turned invisible, she became visible again. His shoulders slumped as he relaxed.
"Great," he muttered. "You were the only one that saw me, right?"
"Yeah," she replied, nodding eagerly. "I followed you, when you were on that call...where did you go?"
He moved to sit in the front row, resting his elbows on the table as he looked at her. "To see some people I know...I used to date Claire Bennet. Before the agents came after us. She was on about revealing herself then but she was beat to it."
"By the Senator?"
He nodded. "Her father. Her real father. I was on the phone to her Uncle, Peter. I spoke to him a few weeks ago he...he can absorb abilities. Wanted to fly. Claire's dad could too but...he'd just died."
"Right. Okay. And then Claire..."
"Claire decided we should be out in the open," he scoffed. "Something to do with a circus, or something."
She ran her hands through her hair, putting her palms against the back of her neck. "Christ, this is messed up. How long before they figure there are others out there, do you think?"
He shrugged. "I have no idea. I know there was a few of them around, when she jumped...they scarpered. Got out of there quick as they could."
"Did you speak to her?" she asked, quickly, inching closer to him. "Did you speak to Claire?"
"No," he scoffed, sounding slightly bitter as he turned his head away from her. "No, I didn't. She's...it would have been awkward. She's dating someone else. A girl."
"Ouch." She winced, standing up and beginning to pace. "We need to...we need to act, fast. We need someone to talk to about this. I..." She stopped, leaning against the desk at the front of the room. "We need to hide."
"We?"
"Well, yeah!" She rounded on him, hands on her waists. "You don't think you'll be perfectly safe, do you? You may be able to fly, West, and I can hide easily but...they'll find us. Eventually. Petrelli's men did. They found me, anyway."
"I evaded them," he explained. "For a while. There is somewhere we can go...Peter gave me a card..."
He took a card out of his pocket and showed it to Naomi. She frowned, swiping her hair behind her ear. As she did so, West's eyes fell to her shoulder.
"Those marks..."
"Had them when I was a kid. Don't remember how."
West nodded, but said no more. Naomi checked the large clock on the wall, and swore under her breath. "We should leave; there could be a class here, soon." West followed her out into the corridor, and the pair began to move down the hallway, heading for the entrance. Naomi scanned the card, taking in the details.
"So what is this place?"
"Pete said it was something to do with trying to keep us hidden," West explained. "A new...thing that his brother was trying to do before he died. It didn't take off, but things might have changed."
"Hopefully. I've got a fair bit of money. It's inheritance; my parents died years back. I can afford us tickets, to New York, if..."
"Plane tickets?" West scoffed, shaking his head. "You're forgetting a very important factor, Naomi. I can fly."
It was an exhilarating experience.
Naomi had only ever flown once, and that was in a plane. Now, West was carrying her across to New York, stopping every so often so he could rest. It took them just over a day to reach the state, and from there it didn't take them much longer to reach the address on the card.
Naomi stood outside the building, arms crossed as she glanced at it.
"It doesn't look like anything special."
It really didn't. It was simply a large office block, with various businesses listed on the plague outside. The place they were looking for didn't have a name, just an address on the card. West dug out his cell and called Peter. Naomi waited, her hands stuffed into her pockets as she stared up at the building. She wished she'd brought a thicker jacket. The thin black hooded jacket she was currently wearing wasn't enough to keep her warm. So, instead, she found herself stomping her feet on the ground in an attempt to warm herself up.
She glanced over her shoulder as West took a step away from her, frowning as he began to talk. Across the otherwise empty street, a woman walked. She wore a simple blouse and skirt, a handbag thrown across her shoulder. Her heels clopped against the sidewalk, echoing around the street. The woman's eyes were focused directly ahead, on her destination, and for a brief second, Naomi wished she was that woman.
She wished she could just work a normal job, wished she could dress up like that and leave home between 7AM and 8:45, heading to be into the office for nine. She wished she could just walk in and greet people with names like Greg and Joel and Richard.
Instead, she was standing outside an office with a guy who could fly called West, trying to find a way to keep themselves hidden. Instead, she had to force herself to smile as the woman glanced over towards them. The woman continued on her way and was soon out of sight, rounding the block.
Naomi turned around as West repeated something. "Right...marketing company...Emma? Yeah, great. Wait...Naomi!"
"Yeah?"
"Do you know sign language?"
"No," she scoffed. "Sorry. No, I don't."
"Lip-read? Great. Thanks, Pete."
He hung up and put the phone back into his pocket, before turning to Naomi.
"Right, he basically said they had to rush to get things sorted. We're the only people outside the core group who know about this place so far, and there's a girl upstairs called Emma who'll help us out. She's deaf, hence the..."
"Sign language and lip-reading, yeah, yeah I get it. So...which one is it?"
"This one," he declared, pointing at a small plague that simply read Pisces Marketing. "Come on." He took her hand and led her towards the doors. Once they got through the main doors, they were confronted with a locked set of doors and a buzzer. He pressed the one for the marketing company and, seconds later, they were climbing the stairs up to the fourth floor.
Once they got to the fourth floor, they were faced with two options. The first was to carry on up the stairs. The second was to go through the door with the name of the company written on it. Naomi stared at the logo.
"I've seen that before."
"Most likely," West commented, pushing the door open.
They stepped into a small room, where a blond woman sat behind a computer. She glanced upwards and smiled when she saw the pair.
"West, right?" she asked, signing with her hands as she did so.
"Yes," West nodded. "This is Naomi." He gestured towards her, and she lifted her hand in a wave. Emma glanced from one to the other, before smiling widely.
"It's nice to meet you. You're Peter's friend, right?"
"Yes."
"He should be here in a minute, with Mr Bennet. They'll help you. What can you do?" Her eyes widened, clearly curious. West grinned, glancing at Naomi. She gave him a curt nod, before disappearing. West hovered above the ground. Emma gaped at them, before glancing at the window. "These abilities...I thought they were dangerous. They can be dangerous. But not if we use them right."
Naomi reappeared as West landed. "I agree with you, Emma. I...I heard about that guy, attacking and killing people..."
"Sylar?" Emma laughed. "There is no need to worry about him anymore; he is..."
Before she could finish, three men appeared in the room. To the right was one man that Naomi had only a vague memory of, a man that sent terror coursing through her veins. As she backed up, West reached out and grabbed her shoulder. The man with the horn rimmed glasses took them off and rubbed at his eyes, letting out a sigh.
"Naomi..."
"What's he doing here!" she cried, rounding on West.
"It's okay," West muttered, squeezing her shoulder. "Naomi it's...he's one of the good guys. But let me guess, he was the last thing you saw before your missing days?"
She crossed her arms, bowing her head. "Yeah...I..."
"We'll explain everything," the man in the middle told her. "For now...Naomi, is it? This is Mr Bennet, I'm Peter and this, this is Sylar."
"Sylar?" she squeaked. "What the..."
"I said we'd explain," Peter sighed, before crossing the room towards her. Sylar stood in the same place, surveying Naomi. She chewed her bottom lip before glancing at West. Even West looked shocked to be in the same room as the serial killer. "And we will. For now..." He glanced around, eyes landing on a door at the back of the room. "Through there, both of you."
Naomi glanced at West, who shrugged. She followed him through to the back room, where they were quickly joined by the three men and Emma. They found themselves in a meeting room, a large table in the middle with chairs around the side. All of them, except Mr Bennet, slid into the seats. He reached into a filing cabinet, and drew out three files. These, he threw onto the middle of the table.
"Peter, Sylar, Emma. These are for you. You two," he glanced at the two young adults. "I haven't had a chance to do files for you, yet. Write down your addresses and I'll send them out to you."
"What are they?" Naomi asked, surveying them as Peter reached forward and opened his up. He pulled out a passport, a selection of plastic cards and a sheet of paper.
"New identities," he explained, glancing up at Naomi. "We're going to supply them to anyone who comes to help."
"So we're going into hiding?" West asked, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.
"Not straight away," Mr Bennet explained, putting his palms on the table. "The idea is that these are set up just in case – it won't take long for people to find out that Claire isn't the only one out there. These identities are for you to take up when things go sour."
"When?" Naomi muttered, glancing at him. "Not if?"
"What Claire has done..." he sighed. "Was reckless, and the results are irreversible. It won't be long before you have government agents after you..."
"Again," Naomi scoffed, bitterly. Peter gave her a wry smile.
"But this time, they could have the backing of the public. These abilities have been kept under-wraps for God knows how long. The Company tried to keep it that way and Claire was unable to see the dangerous side of revealing herself."
"She can't get hurt," Sylar injected. "And with her free pass, she didn't have to worry about the agents..."
"It's not that," Mr Bennet sighed. "She thinks things will be easier, if everyone knows. But Angela...Peter's mother," he explained quickly, for the benefit of Naomi. "Can see the future. And she's seen the one this turns out."
"It's not good," Peter said. "Labs, tests...they'll want to harness our abilities for ourselves. Who knows, they might try to create the serum again."
"Serum?" Naomi asked.
"There was a formula that could give people powers," Peter explained
"But all the documents on that were destroyed." Mr Bennet shot a dark look at Peter. "And the catalyst is gone. It would be impossible."
"It won't stop them trying," Peter hissed.
"It doesn't matter for now," Mr Bennet replied. "We need to work on getting this place up and running, on making sure we can protect people when they need it."
"What about us?" Naomi lifted her head, staring at the man in the horn rimmed glasses. She couldn't push away the fear she felt on looking at him, but knew it was irrational. Still... "What do we do? We could help, we..."
"For now," he cut her off, "you two just go back to college. Live your normal lives."
"Until the shit hits the fan?" she scoffed, and watched as all he did was nod.
"Exactly. I need to get home; the reporters have been crowding around the apartment all day. I need to sort things out with Claire."
West stood up. "Tell her I said hi, I guess. Come on, Naomi."
They returned to the campus, going their separate ways. They'd agreed on no contact unless it was needed; they were on different courses, lived in different parts of the town. Interacting with each other would only bring suspicion on the pair, something they knew they could do without, for now.
So Naomi returned to her normal life, forcing herself to go through the day with a smile plastered on her face, dreading the day when everything would kick off, when the agents would return for her or, worse, when a mob would turn up at her door with torches and pitchforks, demanding her head simply because she was different.
"Naomi?"
She turned to see Carl heading towards her, winking as he slid into the seat beside her in the lecture hall. "You okay? You've been a bit...distant, lately."
"Fine," she replied, as cheery as she could make it. "Just...fine, Carl. Did you hear about Becky..." And she forced herself to smile, again, forced herself to keep the secret, even from her best friend.
She was determined to relish the normality before it was all stripped away.