Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters I happen to write about. I'm broke. :P Heroes and Characters © NBC and Tim Kring.

A/N: Ok, so here's chapter 3 - a bit shorter and Sylar-centric. Nothing exciting here, but it's kind of cute :P R&R, s.v.p. (s'il vous plaît!)

Chapter 3

"Just the Girl"

"I'm telling you, Peter, she's the girl I've been looking for." Sylar said, taking a sip of a beer.

Peter Petrelli sat next to him, drinking his own from the bottle. "Gabe, she's an illusionist - what makes you think she even really looks like that? She could be enormous!"

He rolled his eyes. "It's not always about looks, ok, and besides, if she was huge, don't you think it'd be kind of obvious?"

Peter laughed. "She's with you, isn't she? She's either got to be huge, ugly, or seriously messed up in the head, especially if she knows how you used to be."

"You're not helping," Sylar shot back, finishing off the beer and watching as a group of tipsy girls all pointed at Peter and began giggling. "I don't even know how to find her now. Unless Bennet could tell me…."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Please, just get over her. She obviously doesn't want to be found."

He had an idea! "Hey, Pete, you've got Molly's power…. Why can't you just look her up for me?"

"Hah, no. Sorry, just no. I'm not condoning this, Gabe. Look, check those ones out - I can tell them I'm married and they'll all go straight for you." he told him.

"Yeah, right, like any of them would giggle over me. Apparently you've never seen any old pictures of me. I was the biggest geek on the face of the earth." he replied. "Nope, I think it's time to call it a night. I guess I'll see you around, Pete."

And Sylar stood up and crossed the bar, putting on his jacket as he made his way through the throngs of people. And that's when he remembered his latest job offer….

The Next Evening

"Thanks for coming, Gabriel," Mohinder said, welcoming him into his apartment. "There's some pizza in the fridge, and I take it you can figure out how to work the DVD player?"

Sylar smiled, a smile that once seemed friendly to Mohinder, and then frightening, but now gave him a sense of comfort. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll make sure Molly finishes her homework, too."

He laughed. "You shouldn't have to worry about that - she won't take her nose out of those books. See you in a few hours, then?"

"I'll be here." he replied, flopping onto the sofa.

Sylar flicked on the TV without bothering to look for the remote and turned it onto the evening news. The reporter was halfway through a report about a fire that had occurred that afternoon, where every single one of the building's occupants had survived.

"Congressman Nathan Petrelli's younger brother, Peter, was on hand to bear witness to the horrific sight," the reporter said.

"Yeah, I was just in the area and I saw what was going on. I'm a registered nurse, so I came over to help. I'm glad I could and that everyone is all right," Peter told a man holding a microphone as the firefighters battled the blaze in the background.

"Gabriel!" Molly exclaimed, tackling him in a hug. "Guess what? I got all A's on my report card! My teacher liked my report about watches, too!"

Sylar laughed. "Did she now? Just wait until you have to do one about brains - you'll get the highest grade ever - an A++++++++!"

She turned solemn for a moment.

"You know I'm sorry about that, right? I mean, I know I've said it like, a million bajillion times before, but I'm really, really, really sorry." he told her in the comforting voice that one uses on a child.

Molly nodded. "I know. I mean, I know that it can't bring them back, but I forgive you. You're different now. You're not the Boogieman anymore."

"Hey, want some pizza?" he asked, getting up to grab some food. "Or, what's this? It looks like there's ice cream in there!"

"Ooh! Ice cream? I want ice cream!" Molly enthused, running into the kitchen. "Can I have sprinkles, too?"

"Sure, all the sprinkles you want, Molly," he answered with a smile as he grabbed two bowls.

Sylar scooped out the ice cream - more vanilla - and covered each dish with little rainbow sprinkles and chocolate syrup and sat down at the table.

"So," he said. "I've got something I need your help with, Molly."

The girl raised an eyebrow at him. "You need me to find someone for you, don't you? It's not someone bad is it? You're not going to kill anyone are you?"

He laughed as he took another bite. "No, it's nothing like that. I need to find my friend. She didn't tell me how to get in touch with her, and I needed to ask her something. I tried to paint her, but that one's not working so well anymore."

"Why not?" Molly asked.

Sylar shrugged. "I'm not sure. I keep painting random things, like the other day I painted Peter and I at a bar, and sure enough, he called that afternoon! Oh, and I painted an apartment fire and a car accident the other day. I just can't seem to paint what I really want to. Maybe I'm just trying to hard."

"Probably. What's her name?" she inquired.

"Candice, Candice Wilmer." he told her, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

Molly grabbed her atlas and a thumbtack and opened to a page. "She's here, in New York. It looks like she's at that building in Kirby Plaza."

"Well then, that's a very good start - thank you!" Sylar replied.