Chapter 4: Without Due Care and Attention

A now untied Noah wasn't sure what to expect to see in a distant future. He had many theories, hopes and assumptions. Some part of him went as far as not believing that even an indestructible girl like his daughter could be alive after so much time, and he had certainly hoped Sylar wasn't, or the very least that he had nothing to do with Claire. What's more, he did not intend to do much more than observe and would've even went out his way to avoid interaction. He had often wondered how her experiences spanned out and how an immortal would change and feel about events long past, how much would they forget? He wasn't sure of as much that she would recognise him, even though he was important enough in both Sylar and Peter's lives that they did take very little time to match his current appearance with a younger one.

So when the three evolved humans finally shook their pursuers and Claire was finished with strangling Sylar with hugs and suffocating her inadvertently present dad by caressing the killer's face gently and affectionately, she finally realized from Peter and Sylar's stolen looks and awkward gestures that something was up. "What's wrong, beautiful?" She asked, tracing her hand along the tall man's longer than Noah had ever seen, dark hair, "bad news? More planets were taken and included in the protectorate?" Her face turned more concerned, "Planet Annunna can not be in danger, can it? Or has it fallen already?"

Sylar shook his head quickly, but wasn't quite sure how to drop the big news on the unsuspecting blonde, who was too focussed on him to notice much else. "You didn't meet someone with the ability of defragmentation or anybody else interfering with your powers?" She sounded more worried now that this idea occurred to her and was looking intently into his eyes to find her answer.

"It's nothing like that," Sylar said, smiling softly, moved by her concern.

Meanwhile, Peter had decided to take matter into his own hands, seeing that Sylar was more inclined to enjoy her touch, rather than bother himself with an old enemy, a shadow of a distant past, who's presence was so surreal in itself it felt doubtful he was actually there. Or was it that he did not like himself or more so Claire reminded of the serial killer maddo he once was?

The ex paramedic stepped behind the blonde and put a hand on her shoulders, coaxing her gently to turn. "I'll show you what's up." He took her by the hand and led the bamboozled over to the chair aside, where Noah would've wanted to sink into a hole. He knew how Claire hated being spied on and he didn't know how she'd react to him coming all this way just to check up on her. He didn't even know how he could assume they would simply continue their relationship how it was when centuries have passed for the indestructible girl, but his mortal and narrow mind could not cope with the concept of millennia worth experiences at the moment. "I'm sorry, this was just one thing I needed to do," he said nevertheless.

Claire stared at him blankly and blinked, then looked at his companions back and forth. If it wasn't quite clear that she did not recognize his aged father, she made it certain with her question, "am I supposed to know him or what?" Sylar couldn't help himself not having a hearty laugh, even Peter sniggered, which in turn made Claire even more confused and Noah even more wanting to be somewhere else. So much for making a good impression on your children. What an ironic twist of fate. Your enemies will know you forever, your daughter will forget you. His rational mind told him not to judge as a quite a few lifetimes had passed, that was all the explanation that was needed, but it still hurt.

"I kinda thought he looked just like your dad," Peter waved a finger airily towards the supposed to be dead give away, not worn for practically a full thousand years horn rimmed glasses. "Ehem. Your dad."

The still young looking woman took on the classical appearance of a typical dumb blonde, slow, gaping and absent-minded, so much so that her friends had to fight with their face muscles again not to burst out laughing. "You have the ability of illusions," she turned to Sylar, "but I still don't see the joke."

Noah sighed resignedly. He might not be dying now, but it had certainly felt like it, "no joke." He chose his words carefully, not to rub her up the wrong way, " Hiro sent me into the future so I can take one last look at you."

Claire shook her head stubbornly, and continuously ignored the old man like he hadn't existed, hardly taking in his appearance, "well, illusions can talk! Sylar! This is so not funny! You worry us sick by barely being able to respond and then come up with some senseless prank!" She gesticulated wildly towards the so called illusion, his sharp, gloomy, intent look catching her eyes, "I have to say you have done a quite a good job though, from memory. He does look like my dad would've later in life, it's only that Bennet was more forlorn and apprehensive and less twitchy than this one. And the haircut is different!" She said as she was scrutinising him without eye contact and as how one would study a statue or a painting.

"Holy…!" Noah cursed, although inwardly admitted, he must've been an unbelievable sight, "that went better than I'd expected.." He sighed. Peter paled a little, wincing. The situation had somewhere along the line stopped being funny and turned into uncomfortable.

"That's odd, there was a time I would've given anything to destroy that man, tear him down, make him suffer in every way possible and give him what he deserved," Sylar shook his head slowly, "instead, I have saved him several times and protected all that was dear to him. Well, I guess not everybody dies. Funny how that works."

Claire looked at Sylar startled, taken aback by that voice, that playful, ironic, hidden hurt tone. His sharp, biting accent added to the effect, recognizably from New York, and it sounded exactly how it would've with their first, longer conversation, when once a young, budding woman, she was lying on a certain table in California with a bare brain, being told how special she was.

There was now an affronted look on her face as she tried to figure out the meaning of all this, the reason behind her lover reverting to an old self of him, even if for a minute. If the Sylar she once met as a teenager did not exist anymore, how and why did his conduct remind her of that person and how in the heavens did a shadow of him still exist within her boyfriend? But the sudden appearance of the monster he once was considered to be or at least the drive for Sylar to act so, could only mean one thing though, that something triggered it and that something, or more so that somebody was who her two lovers claimed it was.

Her attention turned back to the man standing a mere arm's reach from her, to his cringing expression and the hopefulness that was flickering in his eyes, just like when he had always hoped that his family did not know enough about him or his work to hate him for what he was doing day in, day out as a company agent. Realization budding in her, Claire was now more taken aback than before. She did not know what to say, think or feel, but her emotions spoke for themselves when tears started to flow down her round, flawless cheeks. "It had better not be some joke or a hoax or something!" She warned Peter and Sylar, but stepped up to the old man, "and you had better be..my dad?"

"I'm really here Clairebear," Noah said apprehensively.

"What took you so long?" Claire scolded before embracing him.

Tbc