Author's Note: Three weeks? You deserve better than that. I'm kind of hitting the wall here, though. Sorry.
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Chapter 7:
No matter what Sylar decided to do, he was going to need to be in Washington, D. C. to do it, so he headed east. He had two goals for that first day: steal another car and buy Elle clothes to sleep in, preferably something that would cover her entire body.
It did not take him much more than an hour to hit Billings, Montana. He would normally avoid a city like that with its traffic cameras, but it would be the perfect place to achieve both objectives. He stopped at a gas station, even though he still had a half tank and was not going to have the car much longer. He asked the guy at the next pump where the closest Walmart was and got directions.
When he parked in the Walmart lot, Elle looked around. "Why are we stopping here?"
Sylar unbuckled his seatbelt. "Because you need clothes."
Elle looked alarmed by this. "Oh, no. I appreciate the thought, but no."
Sylar was confused by her reaction. "Why not?"
She paused, like she knew he was not going to understand. "I don't wear clothes from Walmart."
Sylar supposed this was his fault for indulging that little tantrum over the cot. He got out and yanked open the door to the backseat. "There is no way I'm going to put up with you acting this prissy for the rest of the trip. So you can get out and either buy pajamas and clean underwear or be left behind."
Elle gave him an evil eye, but she pushed past him and headed for the store, muttering something about how she was not complaining about not having clothes.
Luke fell into step next to Sylar, with Elle several feet ahead of them. "For someone who doesn't like her very much, you sure are spending a lot of money on her," he observed.
Sylar did not think that he had spent any money on her up until that point, but then he remembered that he had given her money for dinner the night before. Still, he did not feel that Luke's observation was actually based on the facts. Luke was just seeing what he wanted to see. Sylar ignored him because that was the easiest thing to do.
After Elle stopped grimacing at the clothes, that portion of the shopping trip went pretty smoothly. There was only one incident where she insisted that she could not sleep in pants, but that was settled quickly. (She was going to have to learn to.) Then she said that she needed toiletries, her own deodorant and toothbrush at the very least.
On the way to those aisles, they passed the baby section. Elle stopped, transfixed by carseats and rattles. "I never had a baby," she said sadly as though this was just sinking in.
Sylar honestly could not tell whether that was something that really bothered her or another attempt to make him feel guilty. This was a little more worthy of guilt than damaged hair, but he was not going to let her get to him. "Well, I'm not going to give you one of those."
She looked at him, surprised. "It's too late now."
She was not lying. She really thought it was too late for her to have a baby. "No, it's not," he said, sounding more exasperated than he should have. "You're still young, Elle. You have plenty of time."
At first, she still looked surprised that he would say that. Then she laughed. "Right." She started to walk away.
Sylar had no idea what she meant by that. He wanted to ask, but he did not want to give her the impression that he cared about her or her reproductive issues. So he was really glad when Luke spoke up. "Didn't you tell me that you're twenty-five? Why can't you have children?"
Elle stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at Luke and Sylar. She thought about it, leaving them hanging for several seconds. "Yeah, I am young. I just don't know where I'm going to be nine months from now or nine months after I find a man who's willing to give me a..." She sighed and lowered her volume. "I don't really expect to be alive for that long. This all feels very temporary to me. So I'm not thinking about the next twenty-five years; right now, I'm just hoping to make it twenty-five days."
Sylar tried not to react to this. He killed her, and when he did that, it was with the intention that she would stay dead. He had purposefully cut her life short. So why should he care if her new life was also cut short? As long as he was not the one killing her, it was not his problem. He should just fix her while he could and let the rest of it work itself out.
He followed her to the toothbrush aisle, thinking about why he killed her in the first place. Usually when he killed someone, it was to get something he wanted. There had been a self-defense killing and a couple revenge killings or attempts, but neither of those fit the Elle situation. In fact, it was not clear to him why he had done it. When he tried to think about it now, it seemed like a very emotional response rather than anything rational. He was not sure if, after forgiving her at Pinehearst, he had ever really wanted her dead.
As long as he knew that he was not going to kill her again, none of that mattered. Whether he wanted her dead or not, she was now alive, through no action of his own. If for some reason, this world was going to reject her in the next month or two, he would still only be responsible for killing her once. He did not really believe that her life was any more temporary than anyone else's anyway. To let anything that she said bother him would just be giving her what she wanted.
–
In a newly stolen car, Sylar glanced back to see Elle texting in the backseat. She was fairly quiet for the rest of the day, not saying anything designed to annoy him or provoke him. Luke talked some, but Elle just texted.
They stopped for the night in southern South Dakota, in another sparsely populated town that made Sylar feel fortunate just to find a room. He did not even bother to ask if they had more than one room available because he did not want Elle to think that he was afraid to be alone with her. He could learn from the mistakes he made the night before and that morning. And Elle would be wearing pants this time.
The room they got that night had two proper beds, but that still left the question of who would be doubling up with whom. Since Sylar would never be comfortable having Elle and Luke share a bed, he would have to share with someone. Letting Elle have her own bed, which was really the most logical thing, would feel like he was rewarding her. Quite honestly, forced to choice, Sylar would rather bunk with Elle than Luke. He did not want to delve any deeper into the reasons for that, so he told himself it was because she smelled better.
When she got into the bed, Elle pulled the legs of her pajama pants as far up as they would go so that they were hiked up around her thighs. It was still much better than nothing. Sylar lay awake, thinking about her phone. There was probably a wealth of information in the archived texts and possibly a way to find Rebel without Elle's help. At the very least, Sylar should try to look at it. The problem was if he did get the information he wanted, and it made her presence unnecessary, then he would lose his excuse for keeping her around. He closed his eyes and tried not to dwell on it too much.
Morning came, and that was uneventful. Elle acted like a perfectly normal, rational person. She did not talk about the murder or make any allusions to being dead inside. The only strange thing was that she declined to partake of the free continental breakfast, even though Sylar made it clear that that was the only breakfast they would have. She had not eaten anything when they stopped for lunch before either. When he thought about it, he realized that he had not seen her eat anything in over twenty-four hours.
In the lobby, Sylar had Elle check out while he and Luke grabbed a quick bite to eat. Once they were away from her, looking over the muffins and fruit, Sylar asked Luke if Elle had eaten at that restaurant near his father's house. Luke's response was, "Yeah, but barely."
That was not what Sylar was hoping to hear. He turned to watch her chat up the clerk. He wondered if she was really so dedicated to making him feel guilty as to starve herself or if this really meant that she had no appetite for food. He wanted to find a casual way to ask that would not convey to her that he felt in any way bad about killing her.
As they all headed out to the car, Elle asked if she could drive. Sylar said no.
Elle pouted a little, but then she called shotgun. She and Luke argued for a minute over whether she could handle the running briefcase and why Luke even needed to be in the front seat to do it. Sylar cut them off by making a ruling that it was Elle's turn to ride in the front seat. Doing this made him feel like their parent, which was not something he enjoyed.
Pulling out onto the road, Sylar said to Elle, "So I noticed you're not eating."
The corner of her mouth twitched a little, and he could tell that she was trying not to smile. He continued before she was able to weave whatever lie she was going to. "So I started thinking about how you're a zombie. And you know, if what you're really craving is brains, I might be able to provide those."
Now, Elle really did smile. "Wow, it's like the perfect partnership." She pretended to consider it. "I don't think I want eat brains. I just... would rather not eat right now."
Sylar noted how carefully she chose her words. "Not really a good way to lie about that, is there?"
She played dumb. "No, I really don't want to eat brains."
Sylar let it go because he knew that she still had her appetite. Now he could just wait to see how far she would take this. She had to know that he knew, but Sylar hoped that she would keep it going just to spite him.
Several hours later, at the drive-through of a fast food restaurant, Sylar asked Elle what she wanted. She clenched her jaw defiantly and said, "I'll just have a water."
–
The third night, the sleeping arrangements were set. Sylar still was not happy with the way that had worked out, but he did not think there was a better alternative. So he climbed into bed with Elle, assuring himself that he could handle sleeping next to her. He had already done it successfully twice before.
He woke up around two in the morning, unable to remember the details of the dream he had, but knowing that it had been somewhat sexual and that Elle was involved. He looked over at Elle, believing that it was entirely her fault. She was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that she had gotten into his head and made him dream about her.
Sylar closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, but he was wide awake. He sat up. There was nothing to do in that hotel room, but watch Elle sleep, which he was not going to do. Trying not to disturb Elle or Luke, he pulled on a pair of pants and left the room to clear his head.
–
Outside the hotel room, two government agents watched Sylar leave the room using night vision binoculars. "That's really him," one said in amazement.
The other agent pulled out his phone to call his supervisor. "Danko, we found Sylar. He's staying at a motel with a teenager and a woman, but he just left them alone, to go for a walk apparently. What do you want us to do? Should we follow him?"
He listened for a minute. Then he hung up. "He said not to engage with Sylar. He wants us to go in, get the other two while Sylar's gone, and get out of here."
The first agent was still looking through his binoculars. "All right. There's no sign of him. Let's go."
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Author's Note: If you think about it, everyone's life is temporary. (Except Sylar and Claire.) So that kept bothering me, but I think it's clear what Elle meant.
