Chapter Twenty-One: Uncomfortable Truths

Peter glanced sideways at Olivia as she sat beside him on the plane. She had calmed down in his apartment after a few minutes of crying and left to get ready to fly to Odessa. Her eyes were still red and swollen, but she had pulled herself together for the most part, her hair pulled up into a bun, dressed conservatively for her meeting with Mohinder, Molly, and the Bennet/Sanders families. Peter had called Nathan to let him know the latest development.

"What a jackass! So he just left her?" As Peter had sat on the phone in his apartment, he could imagine Nathan stomping back and forth in his house. "He'd better stay gone after hurting her like that! If he shows up again, I'll pull off HIS skull!"

"He was just scared, Nate."

"And the rest of us aren't? He's not the only one with something to lose here, Pete. We're ALL going to die if we don't find a way to fix this! Running away from everything is not the answer! Jackass!"

"I don't think he's used to caring about someone. You've got to remember, for at least six months, he's been a loner. He probably didn't know how to deal with the prospect of falling for someone and then possibly losing them. You saw him last night, he was freaked out!"

"We were ALL freaked out! You don't see the rest of us running like pussies!"

Peter shook his head, turning back to Olivia as she stared ahead, her expression blank. "Everything's going to be okay, Liv." He reached out and gently patted her hand.

"I know." She blinked back tears for a moment. "I'm not thinking about HIM, right now, I can't. I'm thinking about how I'm going to explain everything to Noah Bennet and Mohinder Suresh. I lied to them, Peter. I knew the researchers in Vegas were funneling Mohinder's work through the network. I'm the one who came UP with that brilliant plan, for crying out loud. They're going to be angry and I don't blame them."

"You're telling the truth now, though. That counts for something, right?"

"Does it?" Olivia turned to her brother. "If you hadn't come to me with your story, I would have just kept on, keeping Mohinder and Noah in the dark. It was selfishness, really. I did want to start that organization back up, but I wanted to spring it on everyone later, once the project has been perfected. I wanted to be all like 'hey, check out what I've come up with, isn't it cool?' and have everyone think I was so wonderful and great. I wanted to have Linderman's power to be this phenomenal doctor and I wanted to show Gabriel-" She stared at her hands, picking at her cuticles "-I wanted to show him that he didn't have to kill people to get powers. He was so desperate to be special, Peter. I wanted to show him that he was special to me, no matter what he did. He killed someone in front of me a few weeks ago, before he was discharged. It was a fellow doctor, a man who had become obsessed with me because of something I did to him. When he got jealous of Gabriel and tried to kill him, they fought. Gabriel took his powers and I let him. I could have turned Devon in to security for attacking us, but I didn't. I let Gabriel kill him. I wanted Gabriel to kill him. I wanted Gabriel."

"Whoa." Peter whispered.

"I know." Olivia shook her head as she sat up, squaring back her shoulders. "I loved him, but maybe he has a point in leaving."

"He's supposed to fight beside us, Olivia."

"Is he?" She turned to Peter. "He said something this morning, and the more I think about it, the more I think he's right. You can accept him and try to get everyone else to do the same, but they never really will. He's hurt too many people, he's killed too many people. No one in our group will ever trust him or accept him. He said we'd all work together better without him in the picture. Maybe he's right."

"You're not going to look for him, are you?"

Olivia closed her eyes, tears starting to stream down her cheeks. "No. He said if I loved him, I'd let him go. I told him if he loved me, he'd stay. He said he didn't love me, but he was lying. I know he was lying. He does love me, he loves me too much to stay and put me in the middle of a conflict. I need to love him the same way. He wants acceptance, no matter what he's done. It would destroy him to have to eat shit for everyone every day for his past. I love him too much to put him through that." She wiped away tears quickly. "So I'm not looking for him. If he wants to come back, if he wants to find me and be with me when this is over, I'll probably fall all over myself to let him back in, but I'm not going to track him down and drag him back. That's not love, that's possession. I don't own him."

"What about Faith?"

"If she's meant to be conceived and born, then it'll happen, one way or another." She turned to Peter, smiling sadly. "Who knows? Maybe we run into each other next November and have a really hot night together before going our separate ways again. Or maybe we don't. Maybe the future we're trying to build, the good future, doesn't include a child who may or may not be orphaned. Maybe that changes too."

Peter looked away, remembering his niece and hating the idea of her never existing. "Maybe." He whispered.

They landed in Odessa and made their way to the Bennet home. Noah greeted them at the front door, his expression concerned. "Peter, Olivia. It's good to see the both of you again, but I got the impression from the phone call that this isn't a social visit."

Peter shook Noah's hand. "No, it's really not." They walked into the house. "Is Mohinder here?"

Noah nodded. "He's in the kitchen with Molly and Sandra. D.L., Niki and Micah are here too." He led them into the house. "Are you sure you want Sandra and Lyle to hear this too, whatever it is?"

"Yeah, it concerns them, too. How much have you told them about different people's abilities?"

"Everything." Noah showed them to the living room. "We had a big talk when Claire and I came back from New York. They know everything about what I do, what I did and what people like Claire can do." He looked over at Olivia. "So how do you and Peter know each other?"

"He's my brother." Olivia smiled at Peter. "You could say I've been acquainting myself with my brothers."

"Brothers?" Noah's eyes widened. "How did that happen?"

"Angela Petrelli and Linderman had a fling, I was born and put up for adoption. It was after Nathan was born and before Peter was born."

"I see." Noah's eyes narrowed. "So Linderman wasn't your GODFATHER."

Olivia shook her head. "No, he wasn't. He told me the truth when I was eighteen, after my parents died and he made himself my guardian." She sat down on the couch. "That's one lie I told you. I have to come clean about a few other things too. Mohinder needs to hear it as well."

"What do I need to hear?" They turned to see Mohinder walk into the room, Molly by his side. He smiled as he spotted Olivia and Peter. Smiling, he walked to both of them to shake their hands. "Peter, Dr. Greene, it's a pleasure to see both of you again!"

"That remains to be seen." Olivia sat back down, her expression grim. "We need to get everyone in here. There's a lot to tell."

Noah paced the room as Sandra wrapped her arms protectively around Lyle and Claire, Mr. Muggles sitting quietly in her lap. Molly shrank beside Niki as D.L. hugged Micah to him, his eyes closing as he pressed his forehead against the back of his son's curly head. Olivia sat in a chair, staring at the floor as Mohinder glared at her. Peter took a deep breath. "That's the gist of it, anyway." He said as he finished his story.

"You've been allowing this secret facility to steal my research." Mohinder whispered angrily.

"Yes." Olivia said softly.

Noah whirled around on her. "You told me, you PROMISED me that there would be NO MORE SECRETS in this organization."

"I know."

"And because of Linderman stealing Mohinder's research, we all die in two years!"

"Whoa!" Peter stood up, raising his hands. "You didn't hear me, man. Linderman's been doing this for years, Mohinder's research helps them along, but he probably would have cracked a way to do this without him."

"It doesn't excuse HER!" Noah pointed angrily at Olivia.

"I know. I'm sorry." Olivia looked up at everyone, cringing for a moment at the angry faces staring back at her.

"You're SORRY?" Noah stomped around the room, angrily. "You're sorry. Thanks to you, we ALL die! My wife, my kids-" He shook his head. "Get the hell out of my house! You'll get my letter of resignation faxed to you first thing in the morning."

Olivia nodded and stood, heading towards the door.

"Hang on a moment." Olivia stopped as Mohinder stood. "We have to be rational about this, Noah."

"Rational?" Noah whirled around on Mohinder. "Did you just HEAR what happens to us?"

"Yes, I did. I also realize that Peter is right. Linderman has been using her just as he's used the rest of us. He's been doing this research for years. If he hadn't stolen from me, he'd have found another way. Fighting and getting angry isn't going to help us. You heard Peter, we have to put aside our differences and start working together."

"I'm not working with HER." Noah shook his head. "I swore when I broke from OWI that I would not deal with secrets and lies anymore. She promised me that the organization would be open and honest." He glared at Olivia. "You lied to me."

"I know." Olivia looked down at her feet. "That's not the only thing I've been keeping from you."

"Olivia-" Peter shook his head.

"-No. I need to tell the truth about EVERYTHING." She took a deep breath. "I'm sure you know who Gabriel Gray is."

Noah's eyes narrowed. "Sylar."

"I had my people find him after Kirby Plaza. I treated him, saved his life. I fell in love with him. Until last night, we were lovers. He was living with me after he was released from the hospital."

"What do you mean, 'until last night'?" Noah growled.

"After he heard what Peter had to say, he took off."

"So a serial killer who has targeted my family is now healthy, and running loose because of YOU?" Noah started towards Olivia. D.L., Mohinder and Peter jumped up to grab him and hold him back. "You stupid BITCH!"

"Calm down." Peter held onto Noah. "He's not going to come after us, I really believe that."

"You do, do you?" Noah glared at Peter. "And why do you think that?"

"He fell in love too." Peter loosened his grip on Noah. "I've seen the two of them together. He loved Olivia, I mean he LOVED her."

"I saw them too." Niki looked around as everyone stared at her. "In Las Vegas. They were together there. Olivia hired me to be the head of security of the casino and I saw her with Sylar, or Gabriel, as you keep calling him. He was obviously crazy about her. It was weird."

"You saw them together and you didn't tell me?" D.L. turned to his wife. "You told me we were both going to be working at the casino, but you didn't tell me that she had that freak with her."

"I asked her not to." Olivia bit her lower lip. "I was planning on letting everyone know after we were closer."

Peter nodded. "He freaked out last night. The daughter that Linderman wanted? She was Olivia's with Gabriel. They got married and had a daughter. He wanted to work WITH us, turn over a new leaf, but I led the charge against him. I got everyone to give him shit until he left. He was the one that arrived as the fight in the desert started. He arrived to see Olivia die. According to Hiro, he fought by my side after everyone else had died. We died together. He came through in the end, but it was too late for him to do anything but watch his wife die and fight beside me before he asked Hiro to take their daughter and hide her before he was killed with me. When he found out that he may have to watch the woman he loves die and leave their daughter an orphan, he decided to leave." He walked to Olivia, grabbing her hand. "He left her."

"This is insane." Noah shook his head as he slumped into a chair. "So you got him to fall in love with you and channel his instincts into something besides murder?"

"Yeah." Olivia nodded. "I know he's gone now, but I really don't think he's going to kill us. He may revert back to Sylar, but I think we are all safe."

"If he tries to attack us, I'll kill you. Take that as a promise."

"I will." She nodded.

Claire stood up. "I agree with Peter and Mohinder. We need to start working together to change this future." She smiled softly at Peter. "He changed it once before, I think with all of us working together, we can change it again."

"So what do we do first?" Sandra asked. Everyone looked at her. "Oh, I'm in this now too. I'm not going to sit on my hands as crackpot looney-tune tries to kill my family and friends." She looked up at Peter. "What do you suggest we do first?"

Peter grinned at her. "First, we need to find a way to bamboozle the researchers in Las Vegas. We need to find a way to maybe send them a virus to their system to slow them down and start feeding them misinformation while Mohinder gets on a non-networked computer and starts the research from scratch." He reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Mohinder. "Keep this safe and don't let it fall into their hands."

"What is it?" Mohinder stared at the envelope.

"It's the research. YOUR research from the future. It's the perfected project." Peter grinned at Olivia. "Faith left that for me with the letter from you."

"Good girl." Olivia smiled sadly. "I really do hope that fate intervenes and finds a way to bring her into my life, one way or another."

"She's pretty spunky, that's for sure." Peter laughed as he turned back to the group. "The second thing we need to do is start finding more people with abilities." He looked at Molly. "There's someone I want you to find for me, his name is Claude Raines. Can you do that?"

Molly nodded. "I'll try."

Noah shook his head, resigned. "I'll contact Hana Gitelman and see if I can get her on board with this."

"Mom's in on it too. She called Kaito Nakamura last night, Hiro's father. He'll be meeting us on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. He's going to try and track down Hiro to see if he can make it too. I called Matt Parkman early this morning. He and Janice will be meeting us there as well. I want all of you there too. We've got to get started on this as soon as possible. We need to change the future and we don't have much time to do it in." Peter shrugged. "We've got an army to build."

Mohinder raised his hand. "If we disconnect from the network, won't they realize we're onto them?"

"Yeah." Peter nodded. "That's why we're not disconnecting. We're going to slow them down and while you work on the real project, you're going to send them disinformation to slow them down further."

Micah looked around the room. "You've got to send them a virus?" Peter nodded at him as a sly smile crept on the young boy's face. "I can do that."

At the former Primatech site, everyone gathered around as Micah placed his hand on the computer screen. "This is networked to the place in Las Vegas, right?" Olivia nodded at him. "Cool." He closed his eyes, then opened them. "One of them is logged on now, a Doctor Cooper?"

"Yeah, he's the head of the project." Olivia frowned. "What's he doing?"

Micah giggled. "Looking at porn!"

"Don't you DARE look at that, Micah!" Niki's eyes widened.

Micah turned to look at her, shaking his head. "I won't." He turned to Olivia. "Want me to send a virus through that page to corrupt their entire network?"

"Oh, absolutely." Olivia nodded, grinning at Micah.

Micah closed his eyes for a moment again, then opened them. "It's done. Everything on their network should be crashing before long. Think that'll slow them down?"

"Definitely." Olivia turned to Mohinder as he sat at a computer. "Is that one off of the network?"

"Yes." Mohinder stared at the paperwork Peter had given him at the Bennet house. "I came up with this. Fascinating. I can't wait to see what I came up with in the future." He smiled softly at Olivia. "It took a lot for you to own up to what you did."

"I never should have done it. I really am sorry about everything."

"I know. You are forgiven." He glanced over his shoulder to see Noah glaring at Olivia. "Well, at least you're forgiven by me. Noah is another story."

Olivia turned to see Noah still glowering at her. "I wouldn't blame him if he never forgave me or trusted me again."

"Everyone deserves a second chance. Noah said that you told him that. Perhaps he should remember that as well and apply it to you."

"I applied that to Gabriel too." Olivia looked down sadly.

"You really loved him? Did he know about your powers?"

"Yes."

Mohinder's eyes widened. "And you survived? You lived with him?"

"I slept beside him every night. He could have killed me many times, but he didn't." She looked up as Peter walked out of a room that he was in with Molly and Claire, pulling on his coat. "Did you find Claude?"

Peter turned to her, his eyes widening for a moment. "Yeah, I'm going to see if I can catch him now."

"I'll go with you." She reached for her coat.

"NO!" Peter shook his head. He shrugged as Olivia stared at him. "Claude's kind of twitchy. It's going to be hard enough as it is to talk to him alone, he'll probably freak if you're there too."

"Okay." Olivia's brows furrowed. "Stay in touch and let us know how it's going, okay?"

"Yeah, I will." He nodded quickly. "I'm borrowing the private plane, I'll try and be back in a day or two. I'll pick you up before we go to Las Vegas." He smiled and walked out of the building.