Preservation
Noah Bennet snorted, gazing about his surroundings with a look on his face that only a short list of people would be able to decipher.
Claire would have called it anger.
His wife would have called it contempt.
Claude or the Haitian may have been able to label the expression for what it was...
Calculating.
HRG had spent a large amount of his life trapped in a spider web. At first it was the company, now it was this monster that Nathan Petrelli had unleashed, this government funded man-hunt for the people that Noah had already devoted so much time into catching.
After all, he knew how. Little Danko might have some general tricks up his sleeve...but he did not really know what he was doing. Everything was so generic...send in some guys with guns, hope someone makes it out alive.
But all of... that did not matter at this particular moment. It was eleven at night, and Noah Bennet was going to sit at the bar of an establishment which he had been kidnapped from only days ago, and drink his drink.
Being caught in a web was not a new occurrence for the ex-company man. However, he had never been so close to the spider.
His wife had kicked him out...Claire was on her own. Nathan had been compromised, and now Danko was the one with the power. So much power for such a short man.
HRG snorted again, this time with amusement.
"Where are your buddies?"
Noah looked up at the woman behind the bar. "...Buddies?"
She smiled nervously, realizing her mistake in thinking that HRG was in a good mood. "Yeah...the guys who carried you out of here last time."
Continuing to stare morosely at this person who did not matter, this woman who had nothing to worry about from shrimpy men with ominous and vaguely European names, Bennet shook his head. "They had better things to do tonight."
She nodded and then turned her attention to a new patron, glad that someone else, a blonde woman, had given her an excuse to leave Bennet to his drink. However, she was miffed by the woman's decision to sit next to HRG, who was clearly on the fast track to intoxication.
After ordering a beer, the blonde woman turned to HRG and said caustically, "Noah? Noah Bennet?"
What was this? Night of the Intrusive Women? Was it not clear that he was trying to exist in his own alcohol-induced bubble?
However, even in his drunken stupor, Noah knew that he had to act the part around people who knew him, and apparently this woman knew him.
"Yes?" He turned to look at her and blanked on the name...but he knew who she was, he had seen her early that morning...she was part of Danko's team.
She smiled. "Imagine running into you... here."
"Indeed." Acting the part did not always have to require courtesy, right?
"Don't you have a family?"
Bennet looked at her sideways. Besides the fact that the question was clearly out of bounds for small talk, her tone had also been bitter and ruthless. He chose to simply ignore it.
She got the picture. "Right...well, how about today?"
"What about today?"
There was a chuckle from beside him, and then a hand on his shoulder. She had moved in closer. "You know, Sylar. Being dead and all."
Ah yes. That.
"It must be a boon for you...I hear you've been hunting him for awhile." Her tone was leading now, clearly trying to get him to say something. He slid her hand off of his shoulder.
"Look, I don't know what you're trying to do, or if this is some sort of test from Danko, but you need to leave now."
He had meant the words to sound commanding, but they had come out slurred and comical. Maybe it was actually Noah who should leave before the situation got out of hand. He placed his hands on the bar to steady himself, and rose off of the stool. "I'll see you monday," he mumbled.
He felt uncomfortable as he left the bar. Her gaze followed him as he walked, he could feel it. He hoped that she would be discreet at the office about this, especially considering he had stumbled over almost every chair in the room on his way out.
Outside, he felt better. The night air was crisp, even as the weather started to descend into summer. Everything was still blurred however, he found himself thinking that there was no possible way he could drive to his hotel in this condition.
He heard footsteps behind him. "Look," he said irritably, "Just tell Danko that he has nothing to worry about."
There was another chuckle, only this time it was different...deeper. "You forgot your glasses."
HRG thought two very separate things at that moment. One, the voice speaking to him was clearly Sylar's. Two, he needed to cut back on the moonshine if he couldn't even tell that he was not wearing his glasses.
There was more laughing. "You could run...but really, how far would you get?"
Noah's shoulders slumped, and he stumbled towards the wall of the building. Upon hitting it, he slid down and sat on the sidewalk. "My mistake was just going along with you being dead, wasn't it?"
He heard Sylar walk over to him. The younger man knelt down, and looked into Noah's unfocused eyes. "You know, this could just be a dream...I really could be dead."
"Christ Bennet," the man continued, "Look at you, only a few months away from me, and you're freaking wino."
Noah sneered. "Death really hasn't really done much to your ego."
Sylar nodded, his eyes never leaving Bennet's face. "I suppose you're actually like this because of precious Claire-Bear...off in the wilderness."
"She can handle herself."
There was another chuckle. God damn Sylar found everything amusing. "Do you really believe that?"
Noah shrugged. With a grunt, he latched on to Sylar's shoulder so that he could propel himself back up on to his feet. The younger man rose with him, grabbing on to Noah's waist as the he started to falter again.
Finding himself in the extremely awkward position of being held against Sylar's chest, all Noah could think was that the monster was awfully stable for a ghost. "Why arn't you in Hell?"
"You think spending my time holding you up in this parking lot is isn't Hell?"
Noah couldn't help but laugh...it's not like this was actually Sylar. "Then go away...there's no reason for you to be here." He tried to disengage himself from the man's arms, but found them unyielding.
He missed the frown on Sylar's face. "Maybe I can't...maybe I'm your new subconscious."
Noah scoffed, "Dear God, I hope not."
He was not sure, but it felt like Sylar's grip on his body was growing tighter. "Time to let me go," he mumbled. Even if this was a dream, that did not mean he had to spend the whole time locked against Gabriel Gray's very warm body.
However, there was no release. Sylar continued to hold on to him. Hard.
"Well at least help me to my car," Noah said, reverting his voice to its usual fake-affable self. Pseudo-Sylar acquiesced, and slowly walked beside the intoxicated man, while gripping Noah's arm around his neck.
"How did it feel...being killed," Noah said, "By that pipsqueak no less."
There was a quiet snicker from the young man. "I take it that you don't like Danko."
"I just have to figure out what's driving him...that's all I need."
Sylar did not reply. As they reached Noah's car, he opened the back door without a key. Of course he did...why would Sylar need a key?
Bennet scooted into the car, and fell backwards on to the cheap, fake leather. Fishing around his pocket, he realized that he was without a key as well.
"You were planning on driving from the backseat?"
The voice had come from above him. HRG quickly realized that Sylar had crawled in the car after him, and was now hunched over his body like a canopy. Ghosts obviously had no sense of personal space.
"Don't worry, you'll be able to find your keys in the morning, when you're sobered up."
Noah flinched as he felt a hand brush through his hair. He could not do anything to stop it, the muscles in his arms suddenly felt like lead weights, glued to his sides. "...Why?"
There was no laughing this time. Only a feather-light kiss against his lips, and then his forehead. Finally, with a slight brush of hot air, he felt Sylar's lips move against his ears.
"Listen to me, this is important. A million bad things could have happened to you tonight, a car crash...getting mugged. You're falling apart...losing your edge."
There was a pause, and another kiss, this time at the nape of his neck.
"I'm so close to getting everything that I want...Danko has handed all of them to me on a silver platter."
Yet another kiss, on the lips again...this time more aggressive.
"All you need to do is Not. Die. before that happens. I can't be there every time you're about to do something stupid."
Bennet trembled with subconscious rage as he felt Sylar completely fold down, so that all of his weight rested on top of him.
"In the end, I'll kill that miniscule idiot, and you'll still be there, alone, for the taking. I will have... everything that I want."
And then the weight was gone.
In the morning, the sunlight glinted inside the car as Noah moaned. He tried to block the migraine-inducing rays from his eyes to no avail. Everything was hazy as he awoke, and his head pounded. 'I just do not get over these nights of hard drinking like I used to,' he thought to himself.
"Some dream." he growled as he stumbled out of his car into the blaring day. A woman walking her dog glanced at him bemusedly.
Hell, he was going through some bad times. He has one dream about Sylar kissing him...it wasn't that big of a deal. Probably symbolic for something.
He grunted as he stretched out a kink in his back. Sleeping in a car was possibly one of the least comfortable things imaginable. Turning around, he paused.
The keys were sitting on the roof of his car...along with his glasses.
"Some dream."