"What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better."
-Wendell Phillips
It's Not So Bad
[Sylar's POV
It had been about one week since his "dream" battle with the mysterious man—and about two and a half since his return from the hospital—yet Sylar found that he simply could not stop thinking about the fight.
Had it been a dream? Why had the usually-thriving city of New York become a ghost town? And perhaps the most difficult question of all: Was any of what had happened even real? Or had the cataclysmic encounter been a mere figment of his imagination?
The power the man had displayed was unlike anything he had ever encountered. Furthermore, it was almost as if the man pulled random powers out of thin air, and he was able to utilize them with amazing skill. Sylar even found himself wondering whether his near-defeat of the man was his doing, or simply something the man had done for his own amusement.
Casting the thought aside, Sylar returned once more to his task at hand. He had decided, as a form of repayment to Sarah (not to mention that he was incredibly bored while she was at work), that he would busy himself during the day with little tasks around her apartment. Thus far, he had fixed a leak in her bathroom sink, organized the guest room/his temporary room so it was easier to get around, and even cleaned up the cluttered-mess that was her refrigerator—the latter because he was sick of being bombarded by a slew of apples, kiwis, and cauliflower whenever he opened the door too quickly.
Today, he had decided to take it easy—he was still injured after all—and organize the bookshelf in his room alphabetically, chronologically, and by size. Needless to say, he was very bored indeed.
He hadn't gotten very far, meaning he had just started, when he noticed an interesting "A" book. Picking up the blue book, he instantly recognized it.
"Activating Evolution", he muttered, curious as to why he had found a copy of it here. Sure it was an interesting read, but it was nevertheless an unexpected thing to find in her apartment, as she had never expressed any real interest.
"Then again", Sylar thought, "it's not as if he knew that much about her, and she was a vet after all. She had to have some interest in biological matters in that regard."
Placing the book on the shelf, he continued, noting any interesting titles he found: "A Vet's Guide to Vital Mammalian Organs", "Greener on the Other Side: A Dialogue on Vegetarianism", and, to his surprise, a romance novel titled, "The Hidden Passion of the Vivacious Mistress". Smirking, Sylar finished about an hour and a half later and proceeded back into the living room, just in time to greet Sarah as she entered the door.
"Hey you!", she greeted him cheerfully, "what have you been up to today?"
"Just rearranging your incredibly messy and, if I do say so myself, quite diverse bookshelf", replied Sylar, poking fun at her.
"Ha, ha", she replied, sarcastically, "at least I'm not the proud owner of 'How To Fall Up the Stairs: An Autobiography."
"I seem to recall that someone here wouldn't be winning any 'Ms. Graceful' awards either", Sylar shot back playfully, referring to his fall he had had yesterday.
Though it had hurt like hell, it had ended with them both laughing hysterically as Sarah had tried to help him up and had ended up slipping and landing, hard, on her butt at the foot of the stairs. They had been lucky that all of this had happened before they had gotten further up the stairs.
"Well, I wouldn't have fallen if you didn't weigh so much fatty!", she laughed, as she moved past him and playfully hit him in the gut.
Feigning hurt, Sylar clutched his stomach and hobbled after her into the living room. Sitting down, Sarah turned the TV on and began flipping through the channels.
"Oh, Sarah?", Sylar asked her, as she turned her head to look at him, "I noticed you have a copy of 'Activating Evolution'. Why did you buy that book?"
"Oh, haha", Sarah laughed and replied, "I actually borrowed it from a friend."
"Ah, I see", Sylar replied nonchalantly.
"Yeah", Sarah continued, "she is really interested in evolution, and found the book to be very interesting. She's always believed in the whole 'super powers' thing."
"Do you", Sylar asked, "Do you believe that those people actually exist?"
"Well, I'm really not sure, actually", Sarah replied, "I mean, I guess anything is possible. Though I've never come across anyone that special yet."
Sylar laughed at the irony of her comment, and replied, "Yeah…I don't think I have either."
A few moments passed in which neither of them said anything. They just sat in silence, save for the TV in the background. Then, as another thought hit Sylar, he opened his mouth to speak once more.
"Sarah?", he asked.
"Yeah, Gabriel?", she replied once more, eyes fixated on the TV.
"Have you ever", he began, "have you ever been—I dunno—not good enough?"
Peeling her eyes away from the TV, she looked at Sylar in concern and asked, "What do you mean by that, Gabriel?"
"Oh! Nothing bad, really. Just…has there ever been someone who was just…better than you at something?"
"Oh, of course!", she replied, reassuringly, "in college there was this guy. I was basically competing with him to get into a program for veterinary students at a local zoo. It was a program that only accepted one person per year, and he and I were the two big competitors to get in. I worked my butt off for months! Yet, when it came down to it, he ended up getting the position.
"I made excuse after excuse for why I wasn't chosen, but, in the end, I realized that he was just better. And, a year later I graduated and ended up getting a position at a zoo here in Chicago. And now, I've worked my way up to where I wanted to be in the first place", she finished.
"Ah, well that's awesome!", Sylar replied, not feeling much better about his situation.
"Yeah", Sarah nodded, "I came to the realization that, as long as I was happy in what I was doing, it didn't matter if I wasn't 'the best' And really, it's not so bad not being the best".
Sylar merely nodded back, though he didn't agree with her sentiment. How could someone settle for being anything less than the best? He used to believe what she did, back when he was just that pathetic watchmaker's son named Gabriel, but he knew the truth now. He had to be better than everyone else. His mother had taught him to accept no less. Yet, he thought once more, if what happened wasn't a dream, then why was he literally decimated by that mysterious man? Did that mean he wasn't the best?
At that moment, a loud knock came at the door, and Sylar instantly knew who it was.
"That'll be Jason", Sarah stated, as she got up and proceeded to greet her boyfriend.
"Who else?", Sylar muttered under his breath, a little angry at the situation.
A few days ago, he had been woken up by Sarah screaming into the phone. He had pretended to stay sleeping, as he didn't want to look to be eavesdropping, but he had noticed that Sarah had tears in her eyes afterward. Later, he found out that it had been her boyfriend Jason that she was angry at, for whatever reason.
Then, yesterday, he had come over with flowers and candy and spouted off about "how much he loved her" and "how he couldn't live without her". After about forty minutes off his incessant groveling, in which he sounded to be rather forward in his attempts, Sarah had given in and they had reconciled.
Sylar had never spoken to the guy—just shared a glance and nodded to him as the two passed through the living room to Sarah's room—but, from a first impression, he really did not like him.
Today was no different.
"Hey baby!", Jason practically shouted at her, as he bounded through the open door and forced a kiss upon her.
"Hey", she replied, as she broke the kiss and proceeded into the kitchen.
As they passed, he shot an unpleasant grin at Sylar, and followed Sarah into the kitchen.
Sylar tried to concentrate on the TV, but the talking and other sounds that were coming from the kitchen were too distracting.
"C'mon babe", Jason pleaded, "we've gotta go out tonight! I know I said it before, but now it's really been a long time since we've done anything."
"I dunno, Jason, I'm not feeling that well today. I had a really long day at work", Sarah replied, as she stifled a yawn.
"Awww, how tragic", Jason shot back, rather cruelly.
Sylar did his best to ignore Jason's hypocrisy, as he knew that the only job Jason could claim to have at the moment was that of the "Professionally Unemployed".
"Uhhhhh", Sarah sighed, and replied, "fine, but we can't stay out very late. It's only Thursday, and I really don't feel like ending the week on a bad note."
"Wooo!", Jason cheered, triumphantly, "I'll just head out to the car and wait for ya. And don't take so freakin' long this time, woman."
With that, Jason strode through the living room, winking at Sylar in the process, and slammed the door shut on his way out.
As she trod into the room, looking extremely exhausted, Sarah let out a sigh and rubbed her eyes to try and wake herself up a bit.
"Gabriel", she said, as she stifled another yawn, "don't wait up for me, ok?"
"I promise Sarah, I won't wait up for you", Sylar replied sheepishly.
"Thanks", she smiled, as she grabbed her coat and proceeded out the door, smiling at him before she went.
As Sylar sat watching TV, he smiled to himself. Sure he wouldn't wait up for her, but that didn't mean that he couldn't stay up all night watching movies…or Divorce Court. And if she just happened to come home while he was still up, well, at least she wouldn't feel alone.
