Chapter 21

As far as Elle knew, Peter did not have an office at the facility since his working there was rather unofficial. She had not even been aware that he had really started work, let alone that he was giving orders already. Nathan had been gone less than a week, and Elle thought it would be bold for Peter to move into his office so soon, but that was the only place she could think of to look for him when she got to the facility.

On her way to Nathan's office, down the next hallway, she heard Noah say Peter's name and ask if they could speak in private. Elle stopped herself before she rounded the corner. She really wanted to hear what Noah was going to say to Peter.

When she did not hear anything else for several seconds, she peeked her head around the corner. They were gone, and Elle assumed that they had stepped into Nathan's office. She walked down the hall, trying not to make a sound.

The door was not completely closed, and Elle could hear Noah say, "...and Sylar was there." Now all she had to worry about was someone coming across her and asking her why she was eavesdropping. She leaned against the wall, hoping that she looked casual.

"You were right not to let me fire her. I realize now exactly what mistakes your mother made in handling Elle."

This was exactly what Elle had been hoping to hear, how Noah planned to handle her. There had to be more to the story than what he told her that morning.

Noah continued. "She's a complicated girl. But she's not—She's not a girl anymore. That's one of the mistakes Angela made. The main mistake was thinking that there is anything we can do to change the way she feels about Sylar. Elle claims to be torn between him and us. She wants to go with him, but she's still loyal to us. I don't believe that, and don't let her convince you of that either. It's not loyalty that keeps her from going with him."

"Then what is it?" Peter asked.

"I don't know. Maybe fear. This company is the only thing she's ever known, and he's already killed her once. If she goes on the run with him, who's going to save her next time? Or she might have completely different reasons for staying. She's hard to read. You might have more luck with that."

"What are you suggesting we do with her?"

There was a brief silence, and Elle waited with baited breath for Noah's answer. "We need to treat her better. Make her want to help us. Ang—Your mother's plan was to use her to control Sylar once we had him in custody, maybe even to use her to convince him to turn himself over to the company. But your mother never worried herself about why Elle would do that. What was in it for her? Your mother was right about one thing. Elle might be able to... I don't want to say control, but to affect Sylar's behavior. He wants her; that's apparent no matter what lies they're telling. But to get her to help, the plan needs to be something that gives her what she wants, which appears to be Sylar."

That was not actually very different from what Noah had told her that morning. He could be lying to Peter too, but Elle doubted it. If Noah was telling the truth, that only complicated things for her. It was easier when the company was completely adverse to her interests.

Noah went on. "When we, your mother and I, brought Elle back from the dead, we gave her her life back. That's just hitting me. She has a life; she's a person, not just some company pawn."

Elle was not sure she could even believe what she was hearing. She never expected to hear anything resembling genuine compassion come from Noah Bennet. She had been hoping to catch Noah feeding the "future" to Peter so that he would know what to tell her when she asked about it. She supposed he might be getting there. Please, she thought, talk about the future.

She heard Peter shush Noah, and she realized too late that if she could hear them, Peter could hear her thoughts. She started backing away from the door, but Peter opened it and saw her.

She stopped going backwards and walked back to the office. "I just came to talk to you, and I caught the last part of that."

Noah came out of the office. He did not look Elle in the eye. "I need to get back to Costa Verde anyway. I'll let you two have your talk."

Elle watched him leave. She was embarrassed about being caught eavesdropping. It made her feel like a teenager, listening outside her father's office. Even though Peter did not look the least bit disappointed in her, the memories were strong. As she followed Peter into the office, which had not changed much décor-wise, she half expected to be scolded.

Peter sat on the couch, the same one he had been on when they first met. "Why do you want to hear about the future?"

Elle felt that it would be awkward to sit next to him, so she brought over one of the chairs and sat on that. "Noah mentioned that you might want to help Sylar. Really help him, not control him and use him for your own purposes. You really believe he can be a good person? Normal, with a house and kids?"

Peter nodded. "I believe it because I've seen it, Elle. It can happen; he can fight the hunger."

Since the end of the eclipse, Sylar had never given Elle a reason to think that he wanted to fight the hunger anymore. "That's not what he wants. If I do that to him, he'll hate me, or resent me at least."

"I don't think so. He said it was a struggle, but that he did it for his son."

The mention of the son stirred something in Elle. "Was I the mother?"

Peter shrugged. "I don't know. There wasn't anyone else there, and I didn't ask him about that."

It would have been easy for him to just say yes, but he was so honest. His fresh-faced optimism made Elle sad. How could he still be like that after everything he had gone through? "Why don't you want to kill him? That has to be easier."

"Are you asking because you want to know, or so that you can report back to Sylar?"

She knew she should tell him that he had the wrong idea about her relationship with Sylar. She knew that saying anything less was betrayal of their partnership. The problem was everything about this conversation felt like a betrayal. "I want to know. I want to hear you say why, so that I can tell if you're lying. Because Noah was right; I'm not going to help the company hurt him anymore."

"Noah still wants to kill him. I can tell you that much. But I... I understand Sylar, probably better than anyone."

Elle thought that was probably a given since he was an empath. "Well, I know him pretty well, and I don't know if I can see the good in him that you do. And I'm pretty sure I want to believe it's there much more than you do." That was not true. She would accept Sylar however he was. She just figured she should try to keep up appearances.

"Maybe you would believe it if you saw it. When I came to the house, he was making waffles. Making them, with a waffle-iron. He hugged me. He said it was good to see me. And he had the cutest kid. Before Sylar, or Gabriel, because that's what he was going by. Before Gabriel poured the syrup, he asked little Noah for the magic word. Noah said, 'Abracadabra.' I can only imagine where he learned to be so precocious."

"Don't do this to me, Peter," she whispered. The words came out before she even realized how painful it was to hear that, how much she ached for that.

Peter did not seem surprised at her reaction to hearing about the future. "You were right. It's not about controlling him. It's about helping him learn to control himself. Because if he can't, or won't, there's only one way to stop him. Setting him on that path is the best way to stop the company from killing the man you love."

Peter was a lot smarter than she gave him credit for. "Are you saying that I should get pregnant?"

"No. If you manipulate him, then he will hate you, or at least resent you." He stood and started to pace. "I'm not my mother, Elle. I'm not even Nathan. I don't like to lie or manipulate. I like to help people. That's why I became a nurse in the first place, and that's why I'm with the company now."

"I don't think you explained why you don't want to kill him, after everything he's done. Is it because you feel pity for him?"

Peter shook his head. "When I first got Sylar's ability, I killed Nathan, in the future. Then I came back to the present and tried to kill my mother. I understand him. I didn't really feel like myself again until I lost my powers. When they came back, they integrated better. It integrated better."

"When he got his powers back, it was worse." Elle felt that she should not have said that. She was afraid she was letting her guard down too much.

"Well, it's his main ability. He's going to have to work harder. You need to give him a reason to do that. And I don't mean a child. I mean that you are in the best place right now to help him, because he cares about you, and he's sorry, right? He regrets hurting you?"

Elle thought about that.

"Yeah," Peter said. "At least that what he says."

Those were the exact words Elle had been thinking. She put her head in her hands. She had tried to be careful, but there was no way of knowing what Peter had been able to glean from her thoughts. She looked up at Peter. "I still can't wrap my head around the idea that I can do what's right for him and what the company wants." After a second, she added, "I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I don't have any power over him. We're not quite anything to each other yet. What I said happened the night your mother was killed, that's all true. Except I left out that he asked me to go with him. And when I said no, that's when he said he wasn't done with me yet. I wanted to make it sound like it could have been a threat, because I thought that would make Noah trust me more, but it... wasn't. I'm holding him at arm's length because of the company. I'm trying to hold onto my loyalty because this is all I've ever known. And yeah, I slipped last night, and I slept with him, for the first time since he killed me." She paused to let the emotion build. "I want this, Peter. I want a way to have both."

She did not know how much of that Peter would believe, but she had to at least try. She stood up. "The next time I see him, if I see him again, I will talk to him about that."

"That's all I want. Just talk to him. Don't try to manipulate him."

Elle thought he was really tying her hands with that.

Peter smiled. "I know that might be difficult for you, but try it my way for a while."

Elle needed to get out of there before she found herself liking Peter any more than she already did. She knew that she needed to be loyal to Sylar above and beyond anything else. She needed to still be willing to put his wants first, and the longer she talked to Peter, the harder that was.

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Author's note: I don't remember what Peter told Sylar about the future. I know he told him about getting the ability, but was there anything else? I thought about buying that episode on iTunes, but I decided to draw the line at spending money on research. So if anyone knows what exactly Peter told him and wants to PM it to me, I would really appreciate that. (UPDATE: I got a great response, and assistance is no longer necessary. But you can still message me if you want.)