A/N: After I posted the first chapter, I really hadn't thought of why anyone would put my girl on their Do-Not-Trust list. But then I figured it out. Have fun with the twist I threw in! R & R! Oh, and sorry it took so long! My life is crazy!

Key: Personal thoughts are in italics, spoken thoughts are italic quotations, and regular speaking is in regular quotations.

Kindred

Two - Stranger Than Fiction

He wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't bleeding anymore. She was still unconcious, but her wounds had healed up. How was it possible? Surely she knew that she had this ability. But why ask for his help? She was about his age, give or take a few years. There was no way she'd gone through her life withought knowing what she could do.

"Oh, god, it still hurts."

The thought mumbled inside his head startled him so bad he fell off the stool he was sitting on. He hit the floor with a loud, hard thud. The girl laying on the couch gasped and sat up. She then groaned in pain and flopped back down. He heard her breathing, hard and painfully. She whimpered and tried once again to sit up. This time she did so very slowly, clutching her head in her hand as she moved.

"What the hell happened? Wait. Where am I?"

"I can hear you," he said aloud, almost disbelievingly. "I can hear you and I'm not even trying. You're telepathic, too!"

"Don't yell," she moaned. "My head is killing me. What did you do to me?"

"Me? I didn't do anything! There was a robbery at the market. You got caught in the explosion. You begged me to help. You almost died. But you healed yourself before we got here."

"I healed myself?" She looked over at him. By now he'd managed to crawl to his feet and over to the coffee table in front of the couch. Her eyes were full of confusion and fear. The pale blue swirled with flecks of gray.

"Yeah, you did."

"Wow. I haven't met anyone with that ability anymore. Cool."

His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Usually, I don't talk about my power with anyone, but since you have them, then I guess it's okay." He hand finally left her head, and she let it rest in her lap. "I borrow the special abilities of people close to me. Usually I need to see it, unless they're strong enough for me to be able to feel it. And it only works if they stay close enough to me. If they move too far away, I can't use their power anymore."

"That's kind of how I am," he told her. "Only, I get to keep the power."

"Lucky you."

She sighed again. Then she looked at the blood drying on her hands. She frowned and let her gaze move to her shirt. It, too, was soaked with blood. She groaned in disgust. Her nose crinkled. Peter chuckled. She looked back up at him, confused.

"Sorry. But that thing you did with your nose was kinda cute."

She couldn't help it. It was a simple statement of an observant person said at an unusual time. She laughed. It made her feel better. She felt the stiffness of her muscles a little less. But the film of drying blood still made her uneasy. She looked around the room for a moment before she let her eyes settle on the man with dark�chocolate hair and matching eyes. "Umm... Can I use your shower?"

He smiled and helped her up. She slowly made her way behind him as he showed he to the small bathroom. Once he'd handed her a couple of towels and a set of his old scrubs to change into, she began the painful and tedious task of undressing. The hot, steamy water felt so good she didn't realize how long she'd been in there. But she felt better. There was no trace of any wounds relating to the bombing on her. Just like the man had said.

"You know," she said, walking out of the bathroom and towel-drying her hair. "I still don't know your name."

He chuckled, slightly amused. "Yeah, I was wondering when we were going to exchange personal information. I'm Peter. Peter Petrelli."

She lowered the towel fron her head to see him extending his flattened hand to her. She took it and gave him a fairly firm handshake. "Vice to meet you, Peter. I'm�Abigail Gray. But everyone calls me Abby."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Abby."