Author's Note...

I am a recent Heroes convert and cramming all of Season 1 in my head in a matter of two days was not a good idea. But that's completely random. What's NOT random is my annoyance of how similar Claire is to Kate. But it's all coincidence, as far as I know. I didn't mean to copy off of Claire at all. So if you noticed that, I apologize!

And... if there are any errors in here, I am so sorry! I only edited this once.

The five-minute warning bell rang, and Tatiana glanced around the crowded hallway. "I guess I don't got 'nuff time ta tell ya da whole story now. Maybe durin' lunch?"

Chloe nodded. "That's fine. I'll talk to you then." She headed for her first class, leaving Tatiana to face the crowded halls on her own.

Kate's gonna be so mad when she finds out I was snooping. Is this all really worth it?

Tatiana started for her English class. She believed that there was a boy walking the same halls who had no idea he had ruined Kaitlyn's life. To say the least, Tatiana didn't have any nice words for him.

It'll be worth it, alright. And whether or not he wants to, that boy is gonna find out how hard a girl can punch.

--

Kaitlyn's POV

I woke up feeling the more rested I had in a long time. I started to stretch my arms, but they wouldn't move more than a few inches. I frowned. Someone had retied my straightjacket.

My stomach growled, and I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, we're trapped in here. No food for right now." I leaned myself against the wall and entertained myself for a few minutes by trying to cross my eyes without the benefit of a finger to guide them. After I had successfully mastered the art, I tried to keep track of how many times I blinked.

Before I had reached a hundred, a nurse entered my cell. I noted with relief that, one, this one was female, and two, she had food. My stomach rejoiced. She also carried a big, empty bowl, which I was very confused by.

She smiled and set the tray down next to me. I noted that next to the plastic cup of water was another one full of a blue liquid. The woman placed the bowl on the floor by my feet. As she undid my straightjacket, she said, "Eat up. We've got a busy day today."

I nodded and began to eat the bowl of cereal. Breakfast tasted better than dinner…at first. Then it tasted weird, kind of like the toast and eggs from the two previous breakfasts. I groaned unhappily and reached for the bowl. So that was what it was for.

My nurse didn't even cringe while I threw up. I guess she had been informed of my "health issue."

I rinsed out my mouth with the water before swishing with the blue liquid, which turned out to be Listerine.

Even though my appetite was reduced to nearly non-existent, I ate the corn flakes and orange anyhow.

The woman helped me up. "We're going to the bathroom, and then to visit the doctor. Stay with me, alright? It gets a bit chaotic around here at times." She led me out of the room and down an empty hallway. It was then I realized how weak my legs were, and how badly I needed to pee.

After the much-needed bathroom-break, she showed me past a large set of double doors and down a few more hallways. These halls had other people in it, patients like me escorted by orderlies like mine. It was weird to see them; for some reason, my cell had made me feel like the only one alive.

The room that we ended up in was clean and all white. The nurse instructed me to sit on the examination table. I did so and stared at the weird-looking machine next to me. What's that for?

My nurse smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about the ultrasound right now. Dr. Wild's going to check to make sure that you're healthy first."

Ultrasound? Oh right. The demon-child would need to be checked on. I hoped I had hurt it. That thing was a huge problem in my life and deserved to suffer.

An old man with wiry white hair and a lab coat entered. He smiled just like my grandfather. "Hello Kaitlyn. How are you today?"

I had no response. I just shrugged and watched him snap gloves on his hands.

"The first day's always the worst," he chuckled. "Once the straightjacket's gone for good, you'll like it better here."

I snorted in disagreement. He even sounded like Gramps and was actually the first male I hadn't been repulsed by in two months.

"Well, Kaitlyn, we'll take your temperature first, then we're going to do a blood test. Are you afraid of needles?"

I shook my head.

"Good." He tied a band around my upper arm. "Shelly, would you grab the thermometer over there?" He swabbed the crook of my elbow and opened a package with a syringe in it.

"Kaitlyn, hold still for a moment," Shelly said. "I'm just going to stick the thermometer in your ear." Two seconds later, the instrument beeped. "Ninety-eight point five. She's normal, Doc."

"Good," Dr. Wild responded. "If you're a bit squeamish around blood, I suggest you turn your head. This may hurt a bit."

I watched as he inserted the needle in my arm and felt my stomach turn to Jell-o as it filled with blood. I sighed in relief when he removed it.

"There, it's all over. That wasn't too bad, eh?" He swabbed the drop of blood off of my skin and reached for a Band-Aid.

I found myself saying, "Oh, no. I don't need it." Freak power to the rescue.

Dr. Wild looked at me quizzically. I proudly showed him my arm, which showed no evidence that it had been punctured. He raised a bushy white eyebrow, checked his clipboard, and nodded. "Alright. Let's get this band off your arm, then." He removed it and threw it away along with his gloves. "Shelly, can you take the blood to the lab?"

She nodded and left. I was surprised that, for once, it didn't scare me to be alone in a room with a man. The sensation felt weird, almost foreign to me. But I liked it; it made me feel normal again.

Haha, normal? Fat chance. But I felt more human than I had in a while, as opposed to being a freak.

For the next half hour, I was prodded, inspected, told to do a few jumping jacks, walk a straight line, and breathe deeply.

The results of my blood test came back quickly. Dr. Wild smiled as he read them, but clucked his tongue before setting it down. "Amazing, but such a pity," he said quietly to himself.

I cocked my head. "What?"

"You are definitely pregnant--"

I interrupted him by swearing and hitting my hand on the examination table.

"And your blood shows large quantities of what you probably know as meteor rocks. However, the brilliant people in the science community don't even have a name for it yet."

"Is there anything I don't know?"

"Exposure to the meteors has altered your DNA. Your charts said you had an…ability?"

"Yeah, freak-healing. Maybe fire-proof." I rolled my eyes.

"As long as you have the ability, you are likely to be…unstable. Trying to remove the meteors from your system might do some good, but there's really no way to tell."

I groaned. Stuck as a freak for the rest of my life. This was going to suck, living in the sanitarium until the day I died. Why me!?

"Well, let's not waste time. Shall we check on the baby?"

It took all the effort I had in me not to scream that the thing was not a baby. I just frowned and kept my mouth shut

Minutes later, Dr. Wild was hmm-ing and scratching his chin as he stared at the screen. All I saw was a flashing blob, but I had no idea what was going on.

"Well, Kaitlyn, it looks like the baby has inherited your ability," he said, smiling. "It's doing just fine."

He may have been happy, but I'm guessing that I looked like I was about ready to explode. I swore under my breath. All that work to kill the thing, and it survives! Just my luck….

Dr. Wild turned to Shelly. "Let's take her off those meds for now, Shelly. We don't want to risk any birth defects."

Oh, that was just great! Now he was trying to protect it? Wasn't anybody on my side?! "But I can get an abortion, right?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Not for a few more weeks, at least; you aren't far enough along. You will have to receive your parents' consent as well."

"But I want it out!" I exclaimed.

Shelly took my arm. "Come along, Kaitlyn," she said. "Lunch is being served soon, and I think you'd like to eat with the other patients."

I wasn't exactly happy with this idea, but I followed her out of the room anyhow. I wondered what other sort of psychos they kept in this place. Maybe two people would have a pudding obsession and fight to death for the last cup. I almost laughed out loud at the thought. That'd be great fun to watch.

"After lunch, I'm going to take you to meet Hailey. You'll like her," Shelly promised.

"Who's Hailey?" I asked.

"She'll be your counselor."

I furrowed my brow. Great, someone was going to try to pick apart my brain. That was the last thing I needed or wanted. Hailey would try to figure out why I had stabbed myself in the stomach. Well, she wasn't going to get a reply. I would refuse to speak.

--

Chloe found Tatiana standing at the doorway to the cafeteria. She smiled. "Hey, T." greeting.

"Ay, Cho'. We need ta find an empty table so dat the other kids won't listen in."

Chloe nodded and scanned the cafeteria. "I don't know if there is one, though. Looks pretty crowded to me."

Tatiana sighed. "I know. Sucks dat it's too cold outside, 'cause we'd be able ta find a table out there."

Chloe shivered at the thought of eating outside when there were seven inches of snow on the ground. She searched the lunch room again. "Oh, I see one over there. Quick, let's get it before someone else does!"

Tatiana followed her into the noisy cafeteria and threw her paper lunch bag on the last empty table before sitting down. She glanced around warily to make sure no one was listening. "So I guess you'll want me ta give yo a list o' suspects?"

Chloe let out a laugh. "Suspects?"

Tatiana shrugged. "Yeah, I guess dat's what I call 'em. Yo prob got a betta name."

"No, uh, 'suspects' is fine. Just let me get my notebook out." Chloe dug a pad of paper from her book bag. "Okay, shoot."

Tatiana shifted her weight. "Kay, but first, I just wanna make sure dat you know dat everything I say stays a secret."

"Of course. This is completely confidential."

"Good. A'ight, I've been thinkin' 'bout dis all mornin'. It could be any guy at our school, minus the freshmen--"

Chloe's eyes widened. "That's kind of a broad range, don't you think?"

Tatiana glanced up at the ceiling. "Yeah, well, she didn't give me much ta go on."

Chloe sighed and wrote it down.

"--Or 'nyone at da frat boy's fall break party."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Tatiana sighed. "About da time Kate got knocked up, she was feelin' real down 'bout da whole freak thing and her fight wit Brooke, so I took her ta a party ta cheer her up. Maybe somethin' happened there."

Chloe shook her head in disbelief. "Do you know how hard it would be to track this guy down if he was at your college party? Nearly impossible."

"Yeah, but yo a reporter. Can't yo dig dis stuff up from somewhere?"

Chloe sighed. "I'm good with hacking, finding email and street addresses, criminal and dental records. But there's no record of the kids who attend a frat party. They come, they drink, they leave. Sometimes they forget." Chloe pulled an apple out of her lunch bag and took a bite. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to narrow it down for me a bit."

Tatiana groaned and started on her own lunch. "Then I'll need mo time ta think."

"Okay. I'll be right here."

They sat in the noisy lunch room without talking, just eating their respective lunches. Tatiana finally spoke after ten minutes. "Ya know, I don't really think any suspects were at da party. We were only there fo like, fifteen minutes."

Chloe smiled. "Good, because trying to track him down would have been way too hard. It still will be, but--"

"Here's something major, but it only narrows down da list by one," Tatiana said, feeling as if a light bulb had been turned on above her head.

"Go on," Chloe said, picking up her pencil.

"She told me ta lie ta her parents and say it was John."

"So it's not John, right?"

"Right."

"Well, we're getting somewhere," Chloe noted as she wrote down John's name and crossed it out.

"But dat's da problem. He was da most--da only--possible suspect. She wasn't interested in 'nyone else in October."

"Maybe that's what she wants you to think," Chloe suggested.

"Wha?"

"Well, if she lied, then she obviously doesn't want anyone to know about the real father. Maybe John was just a scapegoat from the beginning."

"Are yo sayin' dat Kate planned dis all from da start?" Tatiana asked.

"Better safe than sorry, right?"

"But Kate would never be dat careful. Dat's just not like her."

"Then it must have been some forbidden relationship if she had to take precautions," Chloe said. Tatiana thought about that for a minute. She reached a conclusion at the same time Chloe did.

"It was a senior," Chloe announced.

"It was a teacher," Tatiana stated.

"What? Ew, a teacher? Isn't that a bit too far?" Chloe asked.

"Exactly! Dat's why she would try ta cover it up. What reason would she have ta hide a relationship wit a senior?"

"He was popular and already taken?" Chloe suggested.

"Dat actually sounds like Brett…" Tatiana mused.

"Who?"

"He's on da football team an' goin' out wit Dawn Stiles. She's totally over-possessive of her men."

Chloe's eyes widened in understanding. "Then Kate wouldn't want to be confronted by the girl. Stiles would tear her to shreds."

"Dat's why she would cover it up. 'Kay, Chloe, circle o underline Brett's name. He's a major suspect now," Tatiana conceded. "But I still think it could be a teacher."

"Why?"

"Well, anyone would cover datup. And Kate said dat da whole story behind da pregnancy was messed up."

"But that would still stand if it was Brett."

"Well, I think she'd be mo' likely ta hide a relationship it was wit a teacher. Like Mr. "Call-me-Phil" Bishop we have fo Econ?" Tatiana suggested.

Chloe cringed. "Okay, bad mental images. But I guess you have a point. I'll run background checks on all the male teachers and see if anything suspicious comes up."

"Sweetness. How long will dat take?"

"Maybe an hour. I'll do it right after school."

Tatiana nodded. "Mind if I come too, look over yo shoulder?"

Chloe smiled. "Go ahead. You can find me in the Torch office."

"Awesome! Thanks, Chloe. We will find him."

"And then what?" Chloe asked, noticing a sudden hardness in Tatiana's eyes.

"Then…he'll have me ta answer ta."

HEROES IS ON!! Gotta go!! ;)

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