Chapter 3: Staying Power

Claire seemingly just stared at the remainder of her sandwich, hunger forgotten, not sure if she should laugh or cry. Never mind Sylar's nightmare world, but the place was pretty much the embodiment of her own nightmares. What was to happen if she was to stay here forever? Good thing she could just step off some building to her death here after all.

And was that how she was going to look like five years down the line, the way Peter looked? With no regard to her appearance as nobody would see anyway, half batty and obsessed with a certain routine when he had all the time in the world to do whatever! Why had Peter been battering away at a dubious wall when he couldn't even chip it for one? Why did he not try and entertain or in fact teach himself new professions out of boredom? Do something whatsoever that actually made sense or resembled fun. Cause her uncle had been doing remarkably little of the latter. She dreaded to think what Sylar would look and behave like under the circumstances. But surprisingly, according to Peter, Sylar had been the saner one, up to a point at least. Claire would certainly have to judge that herself, by the looks of it. She shook her head, trying to shake all the nonsense away from around her, "but if you know that hitting the wall does no good to anyone, why are you still keeping it up?"

"What else can I do, Claire? Emma needs me, she needs Sylar to save her and he will, I just don't know when and how. Mum's premonitions are never wrong."

"Which means we will get out of here soon," the blonde was trying to hang on to the positives.

"Its easy to loose sight of that though. You don't know how it is find the same shit day in, day out. Hammering kept me focussed and was a reminder of the goal, and hope. But I didn't get much chance to go back to it a lot lately, not since Sylar got ill. I'm just concentrating on getting him better now, so he's fit to help me save Emma like he'd promised."

Claire gave another headshake. This was really a weird world, either that, or Peter had completely lost it. "But the powers will all return to him once we're out of here, so he'll just be mighty fine and all that boastful himself anyway, don't you think? There's no reason to fuss."

Her conversation partner gave a long, tight chested sigh. This will be hard to explain. "For weeks on end, while I was camping out at the wall, I would see no one. Not a soul or living being of any sort. I kinda got used to and was looking forward to his occasional visits when he came over to bring me something he'd found in some part of the city or just to tell me something. I would get grumpy with him soon for something for the most part out of his control, like acting like Nathan or saying sorry and he'd usually go away pretty soon, but still, at least what he was saying got me some new things to think about till the next time. So I sorta got attached to not wanting him die, at least not in this reality."

"Can he even die? I mean I know he doesn't have any abilities, nevertheless him dying would kinda defeat not just the purpose of what Parkman was trying to do, but it would also stop you and your mother's dreams coming true. Apart from the fact I still don't understand why would ultimately he do such a thing at the carnival. Ulterior motives?"

"I don't know if he could die. Do I know anything anymore? All I know is that by the way, I need to go upstairs to check on him. Sorry I'd need to make more bread if you wanted some, but there's a collection of interesting cans in that cupboard in the corner. Take your pick."

"No, that's fine, I'm not hungry anymore."

"Ah, you're starting to get affected by being here. This place can do that to you, it makes you lose sight of necessities in relation to time passing. But you were starving an hour ago and you will have to get used to reminding yourself of things you'd need to do if you were in the real world."

Claire frowned, "confusing. I'm sure I'll get used to it if I have to. Nevertheless, I wanna come with you. I wanna see Sylar."

Peter paused by the door, "why? Besides, if you're looking for reprimand and condemnation, he's not conscious much. I'm keeping him more or less sedated because of the pain he's in."

The young woman shrugged, "curious, you know? Anyway, the place looks boring already."

Peter turned out and down the corridor, simply letting her follow him if she wanted to. "What's wrong with him anyhow?" She asked as they started climbing some stairs, "are you sure there's something wrong with him?"

"Of course there is Claire! I told you, abilities don't count here."

"I understand, I understand, I just, you know, in case he was pretending or something. I wouldn't put it past him, he was pretending to be what he isn't with me before."

Peter grunted. It was expected that the situation they were in was hard to grasp for anyone who didn't live it. He will just have to have patience and take it one step at a time with her. "It has been going on for months and I've been trying to do everything that I could under the circumstances and given that I'm not a doctor, its kinda hard to figure out what was making him ill, but I admit I have not been able to find an answer. Still, I find the idea impossible that he's acting it. If you wanted to come, I should've told you the whole story first before you saw him," he sighed. It was completely impracticable to explain everything at once, so he will have to see to that after. He turned the corner into the first room on the first level instead and stepped to the iv pole to put another saline solution bag on it instead of the empty one.

Claire reeled to a halt behind him, bamboozled at best. From the way Sylar looked, pale and motionless on the hospital bed and the equipment Peter was using to keep him alive, the blonde was quite sure all of a sudden that his patient would've kicked the bucket if the paramedic didn't give him so much attention. "Perhaps if you let him die, we could both escape this nightmare world. I admit though, its entirely possible we would be stuck here for an even longer time then."

Peter turned to her abruptly, his expression not entirely friendly. "He might hear you," he mouthed to her. "And?" Claire shrugged.

"Look, I'll have to change the dressings on the abdominal drainage. It's not a pretty sight anyway, so could you wait outside?"

Claire rolled her eyes, not taking the hint, "believe me, I've seen worse on my own body, remember? So what happened with him?" She deposited herself comfily in an armchair by the window and put her feet up on a tray that would've normally held medical instruments. "Can he hear us or not?"

Her uncle ignored her for a moment, administering medicine through a cannula first before he reattached the iv line. "I gave him enough sedation now that he probably won't," he glared back at her.

"Lack of powers doesn't mean lack of psychosis, so just as well."

"I'm not Noah," Peter almost like growled at her at this point, "Sylar's usually in too much pain to cope with what he's going through, that's why he needs the drugs."

"So he's a vegetable then."

"No. I let him wake sometimes if his vitals and blood test ranges are bordering okish and we talk."

"Why would you want to talk to him?"

"Besides him being the only other person here? Come on Claire, just listen. All I'm asking is that you hear me out. Listen to his story."

Claire examined her fingernail, half dismissing the idea already, "well, as you claim, we've got all the time in the world."

Tbc