A/N: It's been a minute since I updated. I'm sorry. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Still no lemons, but soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes.

Chapter 10

Claire climbed out of the car and was halfway to the door when she noticed Sylar hadn't followed. He was sitting in the driver's seat staring at the door. One hand was snarled in his hair. She knocked on the window. He rolled it down. "Yes?"

"Are you coming?" Sylar looked from Claire to the house. "If we don't go in now, he'll come out here. You're just delaying the inevitable."

"Maybe I should just go," he said quietly. Claire pulled his door open.

"Don't be ridiculous. The only way to get all of this to stop is to show Dad that you can be trusted. Then we can all work together to stop the agents." Sighing, Sylar stepped out of the car.

"Alright. What should I say?"

"Let me do the talking. Hopefully he'll listen to me." They entered the house and were immediately confronted by Noah. He looked from one to the other before focusing his attention on Claire.

"Where have you been and what in the hell is he doing here?" He stabbed a finger in Sylar's direction.

"He was bringing me home. We were just-…"

"I don't care what you were just, Claire. I don't know how many times I have to tell you you're grounded! It's dangerous out there and I can't take care of you if you keep disobeying me. And what's worse, you willingly bring danger into this household!" Once again he stabbed a finger in Sylar's direction.

"Watch where you point that Noah, or I might have to show you mine," Sylar smiled. Claire glared up at him. Stop it, she mouthed. Before Claire could respond to Noah, his phone rang.

"You stay right here, both of you. I'm not done with you yet." He picked up his phone and turned his back to them. "Hello?...He what?" Noah glanced over his shoulder at Sylar, his eyebrow raised in confusion. "I'll see you in a bit Peter." He hung up and turned back around to look at Sylar. "That was Peter. He said, you saved him."

"Claire asked me to."

"I was trying to tell you that, Dad. This is why I saved him after Peter killed him. I had to give him the chance to do the right thing. I could see that he had it in him."

"That doesn't mean anything. We still don't know that Sylar can be trusted."

"I know dad. He has a long way to go to gain our trust, but he's not going to be able to if we don't give him a chance to. I'll take responsibility for him."

"He's not a puppy Claire. He's a killer."

"I can help you," Sylar spoke up. "You've worked with me before. You know what I can do, Noah."

"I do know what you can do, and that's what I'm worried about."

"Dad," Claire said, "We need Sylar. He can do things that we can't. He can get into places that we never could." Noah took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

"Go sit down. We'll talk about this when Peter gets here." Sylar and Claire went into the living room and sat down on the couch.

"Thank you for standing up for me Claire."

"Threatening my father is not going to help your case any."

"I'm sorry, it slipped." Claire reached over and took Sylar's hand. He stared down at their hands for a moment before squeezing her hand. She looked up into his eyes and was so locked onto his gaze that their lips were almost touching before she noticed. She jumped back and dropped his hand.

"Sylar, we can't. Not here." He nodded and looked away.

"How long until Peter gets here?" As if summoned, Noah and Peter entered the room. Peter wasted no time in starting the interrogation.

"What was your motive behind saving us?" Sylar shrugged.

"I mostly wanted to show Claire that I could be trusted. I also don't believe that the government should be allowed to get a hold of either of you or Parkman's powers."

"How did you get Rebel to help you?"

"I asked him," Sylar replied coolly. "Unlike some people, Rebel believes that I have the potential to make a difference."

Noah broke in. "Why was it necessary to take Claire with you."

"It was her idea."

Claire looked up at her father. "All this is missing is a steel table and bright lights." Noah glared down at his daughter. "It's over, we're all back safe. It doesn't matter how it happened." Noah looked down at Sylar and Claire's hands, which had found each other again.

"Why are you holding his hand?"

Claire looked down and then over at Sylar, who shrugged. "I really like him. I don't know why, but I do." Before anyone could react, Noah had descended on Sylar and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"You listen to me! That is my little girl. I don't know what your intentions are, but if you ever hurt her, I will make you wish you were never born. She has somehow forgotten what you did to her, but I have not." With shaking hands Sylar removed Noah's hands from his shirt. He was barely containing the rage that threatened to boil over and lash out at Noah, but he was managing for Claire's sake.

"You will keep your hands off of me," he said darkly. "I don't believe Claire has forgotten what I did to her. She is willing to put it behind us in the face of our current predicament."

"Of course I haven't forgotten," Claire snapped. "I remember it like it was yesterday. But, dad, this is bigger than all of that! If we fall apart, if we can't stick together, they are going to win. They will take us, replicate our powers, run experiments on us, and possibly kill us. We have to move on and stop getting stuck on past issues."

"Well put Claire," Peter said quietly. Noah shot Peter a look dripping with venom. Peter put out his hands in a sort of peace offering. "Noah, I'm not saying I trust the guy. I don't even like him, but Claire has a point. We need all of us. Those agents are after all of us. I don't know about you, but I don't want hundreds of Sylars running around out there. We all have to work together to keep that from happening."

"I'm glad that we can all agree that I'm evil and more of me would be bad."

"Shut up!" Noah and Peter shouted in unison. "Peter," Noah continued, "if Sylar can't learn to control himself, we'll have a worse problem on our hands than the agents." Claire stood hauling Sylar up with her.

"I said I would take responsibility for him." She started for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Noah asked, stepping in their path.

"I'm showing Sylar up to the guest room."

"Absolutely not!"

Sylar smiled. "Shall it be over your dead body, Bennet? Because that can be arranged." Claire elbowed him hard. "I apologize Claire."

"It is too late for me to send him home. He doesn't have transportation and there are probably people out there looking for us now."

"Claire, this is not your house. You don't decide who stays and who goes."

"If you make him leave now, I'll leave with him," Claire responded defiantly.

"Claire-…" Noah started.

"Where's mom?"

"She and Lyle are staying at her friend's house." Noah continued to stare his daughter down and Claire's eyes blazed right back. Noah's shoulders slumped and Claire knew she had won. "He can stay tonight only. First thing in the morning he is to be out of here." Claire nodded and Noah moved to the side to let them up the stairs. Peter came alongside Noah.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked quietly.

"No, but Claire's serious about leaving with him. I can't have that. I can keep a better eye on here right now if I just let her have her way. You can stay on the couch and give me a hand with that."

"Sure," Peter said, "I'm a little too tired to go home right now anyway."

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Claire opened the door to the guest room let Sylar pass her into the room. She shrugged as he took in his surroundings. The room was small, but not uncomfortable. There was a fairly good sized bed, a small dresser, a nightstand; anything that a visitor might want. "It's nice." He said finally.

"It's not much, but it works for a bedroom," Claire agreed.

Sylar closed the distance between them and stood just inches from her. "Thanks again. It does mean a lot to me that you think so much of me."

"I took responsibility for you Sylar. Don't make me look like an ass."

"I'll do my best." He brought his lips the rest of the way to hers and kissed her softly. For a moment Claire kissed back before pulling away.

"Goodnight Sylar. I'll see you in the morning."

"You could stay for a bit. We could be quiet." Claire blushed.

"I'm sure my dad is waiting for me to come back down. I'll see you in the morning." Without another word, Claire turned and left the room. Sylar stared after her before pushing the door shut and sitting down on the bed.

Claire trudged back downstairs. "Goodnight dad. Goodnight Peter." The two men called their goodnights before returning back to their hushed conversation. Every once in a while one of them would hiss Sylar's name. Claire listened for a moment before deciding that she didn't really care what they were talking about. She got ready, then climbed into bed, snuggling down into her comforter. She listened for sounds that Sylar was still awake until she slowly drifted off to sleep.

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Sylar crept out into the dark hallway. He had lain in his bed until all of the movement around the house stopped. He had long ago heard Noah's bedroom door open and shut. He looked around before making his way to Claire's door. Silently he slipped inside. He stood over Claire for a moment before leaning down and kissing her. Her eyes flew open and she pulled away from him. "Claire, it's me."

"What are you doing in here."

"I couldn't sleep."

"My dad is right down the hall and I guarantee he's listening to everything I do."

"We can be quiet."

"We can't. I'm sorry. I can't tell you how much I want you right now, but we can't do this here." Sylar looked down.

"Can I lay down with you for a bit?" Claire moved over.

"Just for a bit. You have to be out by the time dad gets up." Sylar slid in beside her.

"I will be." He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her closer to him. He chuckled softly. "You want me?"

"Unbelievably. I have since that first time we almost…" Claire felt her face heat up and knew she was blushing. She was glad it was dark. Behind her Sylar shuddered as he remembered the events of earlier.

"I don't know how much longer I can wait," he whispered in her ear. His warm breath brushed over her skin and a small moan escaped from her throat. He chuckled softly again. Claire tried to steady herself, but when she spoke her voice was shaky.

"Goodnight, Gabriel," she breathed.

"Goodnight Claire." He kissed her neck softly. He laid and listened to her soft even breathing for a long time before he followed her into sleep.