Title: Two Angels
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG/K+
Spoilers: 2x04
Warning: None, unbeta-ed
Characters/Pairing: Alejandro, Maya, Sylar (gen/bring your own subtext)
Disclaimer: All NBC's and none of mine. I make no money from this. Also, please remember that fiction is fictional.
Summary: "You cannot always be the one to protect me, Alejandro."

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Two days after leaving Derek behind and any guilt Alejandro feels at that is quickly forgotten at each newspaper they pass and every report on the radio.

They cannot drive forever, though. They need to get food, but both of them going out together doubles their chances of being recognized. Maya has become more comfortable now that someone else is with them and is willing to be separated, but Alejandro says he will not risk it. It is not because he is not afraid to leave her alone when he can easily get back to her, though.

It's who he would leave her alone with.

The stranger, Gabriel, volunteers to go instead. As he goes inside the store, Alejandro thinks how easy it would be to just drive off. To just leave him there like they should have left him in the road.

He gets as far as turning the key before his sister's hand stops him.

"Alejandro! What are you doing?"

"Nothing," he lies. But then he shakes his head and turns toward her. "I don't like this Gabriel, Maya. You should never have told him about the book. We should never have taken him with us." He should never have stopped her.

He couldn't let her have another mark on her soul, not even to protect them. But now Gabriel knew. He saw what they were, what they'd done, what they could do. What had she told him that would make him stay, knowing that? What sort of man travels with people he knows to be murderers, even if they did not mean to? Maya said that Gabriel understood what they were going through. What kind of stranger understands things like this?

"He saved us. If he hadn't told us of Derek calling the police, we would have been caught. We would be put in jail and I would have to kill again."

He tries not to flinch at the reminder. What is happening to her is not her fault. His sister is cursed or sick or possessed but, whatever else she is, she is innocent. Except... "Have to. Because you had to kill those men at the jail."

It is not a question, but Maya answers it anyway. "Yes! How else would I get you free? If I hadn't, I would have killed more without you, you know this. God will forgive me for what I've done to prevent that. You brought them back, so He must forgive me." She tightens her hand on his and he is not sure whether she's trying to convince him or herself. "He would not send me my two angels if He did not."

He wants to believe her, to have her faith, her trust in signs, but he is not sure he can trust a God who would punish his sister the way He has. He wants to save her from this devil that has taken her, from this trial God has given them, but he can't. He can only bring her to the man that can. But, he cannot take away the one thing that gives his sister hope, either, so he nods. He will be her angel if she wants. But her other one...

"He watches you when you sleep." He feels childish even as he says it. It does not make it less true, though.

She smiles, and his heart breaks. "So do you!"

"It's different," he insists. "He stares like he's trying to... I don't know. Like you are a puzzle he wants to figure out."

"You act like you're jealous."

Maybe he is. But he is tired of asking her what it is they're saying, he's tired of watching her fawn over this stranger, he's tired of trusting in God and a doctor in New York, and he's tired of seeing his sister cry. He wants her to be happy again, but that this Gabriel who looks at her like she is a new game to play should be the one to make her happy is not what he wants. "I'm being serious, Maya. We would be safer without him."

"You cannot always be the one to protect me, Alejandro."

Before he can think of anything to say to that, the smile of Maya's face grows and Alejandro is distracted enough by it that he doesn't notice the cause of it until the door opens.

Gabriel slides into the back seat with a bag and says something to Maya without glancing in Alejandro's direction. Whatever it is that he says causes her to immediately start to babble at him and Alejandro turns back around and starts the car, tuning out the words he doesn't understand. He knows Dr. Suresh, Alejandro reminds himself. He will help us get to New York. He will help to save her.

When he looks in the rear-view mirror a few minutes later, Gabriel is staring back at him. Smirking eyes that seem to say that this stranger knows what he wanted to do, what his sister stopped him from doing, bore into his own. Alejandro imagines those eyes turned black and wonders if God would perhaps forgive him that sin as well.

His sister is wrong. He will always be the one to protect her.

Even if it is from her angel.

She only needs one of them.