The alley in between the two apartment buildings came to life quite suddenly when the three of them appeared together. Claire looked around, realizing where she was. They stood next to Ellen's building.
All of Peter's attention was on Ellen. She leaned
against the wall of the building and sighed, her stomach still
feeling tender and her legs weak. She muttered a small "thank you"
to Peter and started to the front of her building. Peter followed as
did Claire but he touched her elbow, holding her back for a minute.
With only a look Claire knew he'd rather she wait outside for him.
Claire reluctantly nodded and flashed a small smile to herself as
Peter walked around the corner after Ellen.
Peter didn't feel safe leaving her alone and followed her up the steps of her building, the same ones she stood with Gabriel on just the other day. It seemed like ages ago to both of them. She needed taking care of. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, the skin on her face was blotched red; he could see her hands still shaking as he looked at her.
"I'm sorry you had to find out that way." He said. The look of her brought the guilt up inside of him and he was truly sorry for what he felt he had to do.
No
you're not.
Ellen
said nothing and only nodded avoiding his eyes. Her hand rested on
the door handle to her building but she didn't move yet. It looked
as though she were deciding what to do.
Peter hated beating about the bush. It wasn't fair that he could read her thoughts and it couldn't be the other way around, "I don't want to leave you alone like this." He said helplessly. "Please, let me – " he stopped himself, rearranging his thoughts, "Let me or – or Claire stay with you."
I
want to be alone.
"It's
okay." She said and finally looked at him, into his eyes. Peter
felt his stomach lurch at her gaze. "I owe you an apology as well."
She said. "I was very rude to you before. You were right, I didn't
want to listen to you and as a result I was mean."
Peter
shook his head and took her hand, "No, no. You don't have to –
"
"I'm not a mean person, Peter." She said, her eyes
welling with tears again.
"I know you're not." Peter said
gently.
"I am sorry." She said and opened the door.
"Am
I allowed to come and check on you later?" he said.
Ellen
thought for a moment and nodded.
"Be safe." He said, kissing
her hand and holding it in both of his for one more moment before he
let her take it away from him.
She closed the door.
Gabriel
she thought, …he's
going to kill me.
Her
heart began to thud in her chest again as it did when she saw the
shadow in Claire's high school. Peter put his ear to the closed
door and listened to her as she moved away.
She had told him to stay. Ellen got to her floor and then to the door to her apartment and stood in the hallway staring at it. Closing her eyes tightly she forced the images from her mind. The screams still echoed in her ears and she believed she would never be able to stop hearing them. Breathing deeply she did her best to calm her nerves and opened the door.
Sunlight poured into the room through the windows on
the far wall. Ellen opened the door cautiously and stepped into the
room, making as little noise as possible as though someone was
waiting at the side of the doorway with a double bladed axe.
She
saw the note she had left him on the floor next to the pile of
blankets and approached slowly.
Gabriel lay asleep on the couch, a hand resting on his chest that rose and fell slightly as he breathed, and the other dangled over the edge of the cushion. He'd used those hands to kill. Ellen felt sick again as she saw him, so calm and innocent looking as she had always thought him to be.
Her
heart moved faster and Gabriel stirred, opening his eyes.
Ellen
wanted to hide but he had somehow known she was there already. His
eyes opened to her and she stared at him.
"Hello." He said
with a small smile.
There was a line of red where his blood had
seeped through the bandage on his forehead.
Ellen stammered
until she could find her voice, "How are you feeling?"
He
curled his up his legs so she could sit next to him. "Better." He
said. "Thank you, Ellen." The voice was so gentle, so not like
what she had heard when she was with Peter.
Ellen allowed her eyes
to wander anywhere but his face and she saw the black coat lying in a
heap on the floor and shuddered.
"You've been crying."
He said and sat up immediately, his hands lightly on her arm.
Her
heart pounded in her chest at his sudden movement and he stopped.
"What's wrong?" he brushed her hair from over her shoulder to
her back and felt her recoil from his touch.
"Ellen." His
voice had lost some of its tenderness. It had been replaced with
suspicion. He felt her trembling frame when he put his hand on her
back and his eyes narrowed.
"Has someone hurt you?" he asked
firmly, pursing his lips. He dared anyone to come near her. She shook
her head and still refused to look at him.
"Where have you
been?" he said, commanding an answer from her rather than
asking.
Her eyes were focused on the floor in front of her, her
hands twisting and untwisting themselves in her lap, "If I don't
tell you are you going to kill me?"
Gabriel thought what she
could mean besides the obvious from the question. Surely she did not
know about last night. He had turned it over, sideways, and upside
down in his mind and he still could not understand how she had been
asleep yet she had somehow deflected him.
He wanted her power but
he could not have it. He hadn't come to grips with that fact yet,
the lust for her power was still strong inside him. But he could
still have her and he believed that he almost wanted that more. Never
in his entire life had he encountered such kindness, he did not
believe it existed until he met her.
"What are you talking
about?" he said innocently.
"Please don't touch me." She
said and stood up in one swift movement that surprised even
her.
"Ellen, tell me who has hurt you?" he said, getting to
his feet as well and moving to her.
She looked fully at him then, her eyes wild wet with her tears, "Fine! It's you, Gabriel." She backed away as he came to her until her back was against a wall. "It's always been you." She said softly.
Gabriel would not give her any space and allowed her to pin herself between him and the wall, leaving only a small gap between she and him. He would not lose her power and her as well. He would not!
Her head lolled weakly to one side as he approached, her eyes looking helplessly about the room when she felt a warmth on her cheek. Gabriel gently pulled her eyes back to him, his fingers in her hair and palm on her jaw.
"Just please, please leave." She whispered to him. "Please go now. I can't have you here anymore." Her breathing became more rapid as he touched her. She was afraid but couldn't move away and didn't try to push him away either.
Gabriel shook his head slowly, "No. Not until you tell me what you're on about." He said in a low voice, he lifted the tears from her cheeks with his fingers and touched the wet tips to his lips.
"Please…" she said
quietly, pushing his hand away.
His eyes were alight as he came
closer, kissing her forehead, then her jaw and neck, then a touch on
her lips. Ellen shuddered and closed her eyes, turning her head away
from him. His draw was so strong that she felt she couldn't fight
it for much longer.
"I would never hurt you, Ellen."
"I
don't know that." Ellen could barely speak. "I don't know
you."
His hands moved underneath her jacket and pushed it off
her shoulders allowing it to slide to the floor leaving only a light
cap sleeved shirt underneath.
"Yes you do." He said
softly in her ear as he'd done before. His fingers glided down her
neck to her chest, "You know me better than most. I am Gabriel,"
He winced at his own voice saying the name. "and I will take care
of you – "
"Gabriel, please don't." she said.
"I
won't let anyone hurt you." He smiled slightly at how absurd he
sounded to himself but for some reason he wanted to believe
it.
Ellen put her hands on his chest to keep space between them but he would have none of it. With one hand pressed to her back and the other around the back of her neck, tangled in her hair he kept her close to him, allowing his lips to play across her skin.
She felt the small thump of his heart through his chest, steady and strong. It lulled her against what she really wanted to say to him, what she wanted to scream at him. Never in her life had she felt so torn. A man with suddenly so much passion and gentleness to her she had also witnessed do horrible things to other people. He would have killed Claire in an instant that night if it hadn't been for Peter. He would have killed Peter as well if it hadn't been for Claire.
But he had not harmed her.
Ellen's hands slid to
his shoulders and neck, finally accepting his embrace. Her tired face
slid against his, feeling the slight beard growth on his cheek and
jaw.
"I can't believe you." She whispered in his
ear.
"Why not?" he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her
again, holding her longer each time.
Ellen felt as though she was
going to burst with what she was feeling. She was afraid to lose him
and she wanted him so badly in that moment but there was no denying
what he was.
"Because – because – " she choked on her
words but he smiled.
"Because why, Ellen?" he brushed her
fresh tears away.
"I know what you really are," She said, her
voice shaking violently. "I know what you've done...S-Sylar."
she said
