Heroes - Rise of the Phoenix
Chapter eleven - what's in a name?

Molly Nakamura opened her eyes and rubbed the sleep and drowsiness from her lashes. It had been such a long night, and she had to be at work in the morning. She looked at the digital clock display and groaned in despair at the time. It was past 2 in the morning. She had to be up and out the door in only a few hours. Sometimes the blessings of being a parent out weighed the trials and struggles; but these last 24 hours had been a close tie; and she felt like the tribulation side of scale was heavier and sinking lower to tip the scale to the counter.

Her daughter turned over in her arms, coughing roughly in her struggled sleep. She was still burning up with a fever. Her beautiful blonde hair was plastered to her forehead in a cold sweat. Her breathing was labored and every few seconds the child burst into a coughing fit that shook her small body and woke her up in a storm of tears and pain. Her face and body were covered in small red welts that she absentmindedly scratched at in her fitful sleep.

Hiro sat at the other end of the couch in his night shirt and sleeping shorts. His head tipped far back, with his mouth wide open snoring softly. His chest lifted and fell in a comforting rhythm that made the Batman symbol on his t-shirt reflect and catch the light of the fire in the hearth, making she smile. Lifting the worry and stress for the moment, she loved him so much. He had flown in that afternoon from a business trip to Tokyo, Japan. His sister needed his personal touch at a very important meeting that morning. His talents and skill of running the political aspects of the family business meant she needed him several times a month. But once he heard their baby was sick, he caught the later afternoon flight and was home as fast as he could. Someday they would invent the transporter and he could just pop over for a few minutes and then back. Until then, this was their life. She was a senior executive in the New York office, and they both love their little girl.

Molly placed a soft hand against her child's chest. The rattle was harsh and made it hard for the little child to breath. There was no way she was going to be able to go in the office. She would be a wreck. Hiro would need to get a few hours of sleep, and what if they had to go to the hospital again? They had been there just earlier that evening and had chosen to bring the child home and nurse her at home, instead of risking her catching a secondary infection by waiting hours in the emergency room.

She had left that morning for school all eager and bright eyed. She loved school and took after her father in that way. But the school nurse had called her just before lunch, and requested she be picked up right away as the first sign of the chicken pocks was starting to show, and she had a temperature and was in pain all over. She had thrown-up twice in the cab ride home and Molly had to tip the driver an extra fifty dollars so that he would not force them to get out of his cab at the nearest corner.

Molly reached over to the coffee table for her mobile phone, and dialed her assistant's desk line. She would have to work from home in the morning, or take the day off, she concluded as she listened to the outgoing voice mail message. At the sound of the beep she recorded her note, "Dezeray, I will be working from home in the morning. Please cancel or reschedule all my appointments as needed." She paused. She wanted to say her daughter's name, to let her Admin know her child was sick. Her eyes grew in worry as she closed the phone and hung up. She looked down at the child in her lap, in confusion and fear. What was her daughter's name? How could she forget her name? She reached out a hand to Hiro and touched his shoulder.

Hiro opened his eyes with a start. He sat up and quickly wiped the sleep from eyes, "I'm awake!" he whispered.

X-X-X

Gabriel and Claire hung in the sky far above the Southside hospital remains. The building had been severally damaged by the events of the last few hours. The power in the girls was something to fear, and respect. They had to find NJ. They had to locate this person that held him captive. After several hours of flying over the massive City, they had agreed that the best place to look for clues was at the Hospital. They needed to be active, to be looking. Peter was taking too long.

Claire rested her head backwards against the shoulder of Gabriel. His strong arms wrapped around her waist and held her firm against his body as they hovered hundreds of feet over the hospital building. She was getting tired, and the warmth of his body was causing her to be drowsy. It still amazed her that he had changed so much in such a short period of time. He had been a wild beast and monster bend on the destruction of all specials only a few years before. He had had only one desire then, and that was to be the most powerful, the most special of them all. He wanted to obtain all powers he encountered that he felt drew him closer to his ultimate goal. Those he "took a power" from died in horrible and gruesome ways. He had even held her helpless against her own will in her house in Texas, as he cut her flesh open and exposed her brain, with just the power of his mind.

The pain had been incredible. The pain filled her mind and soul and she screamed in her mind. She had felt he was toying with her, like a cat with a fresh mouse it had just captured; and he would soon kill her like the dozens of others before. "Are you going to kill me?" she had asked in disbelief as she struggled to escape from his mental grip, "Are you going to eat my brain?"

That fateful moment, had changed the course of her life and forever bound one to the other. His time in prison with Peter in Gabriel's torturous mind had changed him. He had found redemption with Peter and since that time had made his new life mission to be her personal protector and defender. Sometimes she hated having him around. Sometimes she could not find herself fathoming a future without him. He was like a large warm blanket that she needed, but resented the fact she did need it. She needed his warmth. She needed his comfort. She needed his power. He was her personal monster. The beast on a leash; the devil in her hand and the angel on her shoulder all wrapped up in one. Their relationship was complicated and she feared tipping the scales, into the unknown. At times she could see in his sees the beast just under the surface, eager to escape and to rampage in its freedom. It was like at times only a single sheet of glass held back the monster.

Tracy had asked the other evening, as they sat on the couch late after the children had been put to bed, and Noah was working a double shift at the station, "Do you love him?" She had asked and looked hard into Tracy's face. Was there any humor there? Was she trying to crack a joke? Was she serious? She had paused and looked away from her new step-mother, and down at her steaming cup of java. "I don't know..." she gasped through trembling lips, "It's complicated."

Complicated was the only word she could use to describe their relationship. Some days she wanted to grab him and kiss him like there would be no tomorrow. Other days she could not stand the sight of him and hated every fiber of her own soul when she felt that way. Other days she found her counting the hours until he would be knocking on the door and they could spend the evening on the porch, or walking the pathways of Central park holding hands while watching the stars far above in the heavens. Those days she felt her soul could not live another moment without him holding her close and hoping with the joy of the young child hidden behind the facade of adulthood, that he would drop to one knee before her and without a word, slide a ring of diamonds on her finger.

"Complication is the spice of life," Tracy smiled with a glint in her eye, "without it life would be boring and lonely."

Claire relaxed against Gabriel's shoulder. She could feel the beat of his heart. The power of his heart seemed to reach into her chest, and take over the rhythm of her own heart. Their heart rhythms seemed to mesh into one and she struggled to distinguish one beat from the other. Did she love him? Could she take the luxury of his feelings for granted? "Gabriel?" she spoke softly. She felt his heart skip a beat at the sound of her voice. "Yes?" he said softly only inches from her ear.

"I need to tell you something. It's important..." Claire stammered and took a deep breath. This was harder than she thought. If she said the words, could she live up to them? If she said the words, would she break his heart, or would he be delighted dispelling all her fears? If she said the words, their relationship would forever change. Did she need to say anything now? They would in theory live forever. They could have this conversation a hundred years from now and still have the rest of eternity to live out the consequences. "You said it is Important?" Gabriel asked.

Claire looked once more back at the building far below, how should she word her feelings? Her thoughts seemed suddenly jumbled and fractured. Her eyes focused on something far below them. A figure was darting across the roof top of the Hospital: a dark figure, leaping from one level to another, making its way toward the damaged side of the building. "What is that?"

X-X-X

Noah Bennet waited patiently as the three men approached him. They tried to encircle him and box him in. They had their orders, and he was to be captured. He was confident of that conclusion. If their orders had been otherwise, they would have already killed him. Why would they want him? They didn't, he would have no value to them. They had to want the bracelet. They had followed the tracker in the jewelry. They knew he had it and they wanted it back. They must not know exactly where the bracelet was, or they would have killed him already and just searched his body.

The nearest man circled around behind a table and tried to get him to turn away from the other two assailants approaching him. The next man stepped behind the diners counter and drew a long stun-stick. The blue energy arch crackled and sparked with intimidation. The last man, waited by the front door, with his arms crossed and a smug smile plastered across his face, like he was the leader, and his boys could take care of this without his help.

Noah waited calmly. This was what he knew best. Knuckles to knuckles, fist to face. This he knew well. The men before him out weighed him by over 50 lbs each. They were each at least six inches taller than he was, and were more than thirty years his junior.

One

He needed to make this a decisive battle. Nothing strung out. He had to strike fast and sure. He needed to take these boys down with as little wasted energy as possible. He watched the man weaving between the tables through the corner of his eye. Almost, he gauged the distance of the man in relationship to the others.

Two

He lifted his coffee mug to his lips like he did not have a care in the world. The leader lowered his arms and took a step toward him. He must have decided that he would be needed to subdue the target, exactly as he had hoped for. They were so predictable. The man behind the counter took a step further as he made his way to Noah's left. The man by the tables made his way to the right. He was leering in his eagerness to take down the target before him. Noah heard the bump of the man's shoe against a chair leg.

Three

Noah sprung into action. With a flick of the hand he threw his coffee cup at the man by the front door. With the expected reaction of the man ducking and charging toward him, Noah lifted his leg high and slammed his foot hard down on the table top beside him. The opposite end of the table shot up and cracked into the second man's jaw that was just moving to attack. The man dropped to the floor like a brick, as Noah grabbed a chair and threw it into the feet of the next man, now leaping over the diners counter. With wide eyes of alarm the man tumbled to the floor; his stun stick clattering to the floor as the first man swung his fists at Noah's face. He pivoted and dodged, and lifted a fist from below straight into the man's chin. Then with a swift turn he struck the man deep in the throat at the Adam's apple with a full force elbow strike. He then grabbed the man as he clutched his throat, and swung behind him, just as the other attacker regained his feet and jabbed the stun stick at Noah's head.

With perfect timing Noah shoved the first man forward by the shoulders and into the full blow of the electric arch of the blue energy. The legs of the man in his arms locked and his body convulsed as Noah dropped the man and allowed him to crumble to the floor. Noah stepped in and with all he could muster sent a lead jab straight to the nose and a right hook to the side of the head of the last man standing; and watched with satisfaction as he closed his eyes in pain and fell over to the floor like a tree. Then for personal satisfaction Noah flipped the stun stick to his hand from the floor by the tip of his shoe, and jabbed it at the man's heart.

X-X-X

The man sat in a dark room with two men silently standing on either side of his chair. They held themselves at attention, like guards, but he could tell they were not soldiers. The room was empty of furnishings other than the chair he sat in. A single light bulb illuminated the room in a socket by the door before him. He was not bound, or restrained as he sat in the chair; however the guards beside him made it very clear he was to wait and not leave the chair. "It has been a few minutes now, how much longer am I expected to wait?" he asked as he stood slowly to his feet to stretch his legs. It had been an amazing adventure to cross half the country in only a few hours. He had lied, begged, and stolen to make his way to the one place he hoped to find help to save his girls.

After the explosion he had made his way back to the safe place he had prepared for his comatose child, only to find her gone. It had taken him only minutes to get to the surface and hear of the destruction of the Southside Hospital. He had missed the helicopter by only seconds, as he witnessed his girls being loaded into the airship and lift off into the sky; all his hopes and hard work, flying off into the sunset. His sacrifice laid waste as they disappeared into the evening light. Without any other option he made his way here to see what he might find to help him save the girls and escape the hands of those pursuing them once and for all. Was he too late? Peter Petreli was the man in the helicopter with his girls. Was he a good man or a bad man? Peter would not remember him. It had been so many years ago, and he was only an infant the last time his mother brought the child to him. Angela had been there as the Helicopter flew away. She had been in tears. The blond from central park, had also been there, running toward the helipad with the man from the sewers. She had been in Central Park a day or so before that. She looked so much like her sister. It had shocked, and confused him to see her running toward him that morning. She was like a vision, an angel. She could have been a demon. It had been over a year since he had seen her last. There was something different in her face, like she had seen such grief, but much more joy that filled in the void. Tracy was her name! She had a sister, Niki who had died in a warehouse fire saving her son. He wondered what had become of her nephew, Micah. Other faces in the crowd he thought he should recognize, but names and places escaped him.

He had been on the run for so long. His hair that had been brown was now white. His health was fading from all the abuse. He felt at least twenty years older then his real age, and knowing his own reflection; he knew he looked it as well. He had expected the place to be abandoned, not burned to the ground on the surface, and guarded below. Was the company still functional? Who was in charge now? Could he expect their understanding or assistance? Could he slip away and get to his old lab? Were the medical storage lockers untouched?

If this was the company, he was in deep trouble. If this was not the company, how had they found this place? Was he out of the frying pan and now deep in the coals of the fire?

"Please, let me see whom is in charge." the man demanded as one of the guards placed a heavy hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down into the chair. They ignored him as the sound of a large latch was released and the room's door swung open.

"Good Afternoon," a familiar voice said as Peter Petreli stepped through the doorway and into the room, "Welcome to the vault." he paused for effect, "but I have a feeling you are not a stranger to this facilities; Doctor Zimmerman."

"Yes, Peter," the man spoke "I have been here before."

X-X-X

Noah Bennet adjusted the two unconscious men in the backseat of their vehicle, and then smiled back at Florence in the diner as he climbed into the front passenger seat. He reached out and straightened the tie of the driver, as he slipped his hand into the man's coat pocket and pulled out a set of hand cuffs. The man did not move. His eyes remained glazed over and his mouth open in an unconscious sleep. His head rested against the driver's window glass, and his breath fogged the window as he breathed. Noah took his knife and broke the restraints so they could no longer click or lock, and placed the cuffs on his wrists, just as the men in the back seat began to awake. He placed a hand on the car horn and pressed hard, stirring the driver back to consciousness with the sound as he smiled and said while lifting his handcuffed wrists up so that the man could see,

"Congratulations, you caught me!" The driver looked around confused for a split second at Noah, and then placed a hand to the side of his throbbing jaw. "Now take me to your leader."

X-X-X

Hiro lifted his finger to his lips and nodded his head in understanding as his wife Molly placed the child comfortably in the couch and covered her with a blanket. They stepped away from the little sleeping girl, and into the kitchen, as Molly grabbed Hiro's hand. "Why can't I remember her name?" She placed his hand on her forehead in panic, "Do I have a temperature, am I sick?" her eyes were wide with desperation. "How can a mother forget her daughter's name?"

Hiro drew her into his arms in a loving hug, "It's all right, you are just stressed. You have had a lot going on in the office lately. Sometimes I even forget my sister's name."

Molly pushed his embrace away and glared at him, "I can remember her last doctor's appointment. I can remember the name of the nurse that checked us into the emergency care just a few hours ago. I can even remember her last birthday party theme!"

Hiro smiled, "Disney Princesses, so much pink! It took me hours to fill up all those balloons."

Molly continued unfazed, "I can remember her grades on her last report card. I can remember that her teacher hates strawberries, but loves watermelon. She has a picture of the Eiffel tower hidden under her pillow."

Hiro looked lovingly at his panicking wife. "Yes, I have seen that picture too. Someday she wants to go there."

Molly finally let the tears flow, "But why can't I remember her name?" she moaned as she dropped into the counter chair and cradled her head in her hands.

Hiro turned and took a coffee mug from the cupboard and filled it with the warm pot brewing on the machine. He set the steaming mug of dark black liquid on the counter before his wife, with worry in his eyes. The aroma and steam weaved around his wife's hands and filled her senses. He had not seen her, this distraught before. She had forgotten birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions quite frequently. He loved his wife, but she was not the best at remembering the simple things in life, or especially the important dates. She could recite a legal contract amendment off the top of her head, but then would forget to eat, and even forget to come home some nights. She was his joy. The last decade of marriage was the best days and years of his life. The day she told him they were pregnant was only second to the day she said I DO. But every year, he was the one that remembered their anniversary. He would even mark it on the calendar and circle it in red, yet she would still miss the date, or even forget to look at the calendar.

Molly took a sip of the hot coffee and looked him directly in the eyes, "What is her name? Tell me please! I'm scared something is wrong with me." She was a corporate executive. She relied on her memory; it was her bread and butter. Sure, she forgot some things, and Hiro was always nagging her on birthdays and other things like that, but she never forgot a face or a name. She was a mother, and a mother never forgets her child's name!

Hiro, paused as he opened his mouth to speak her name. He could remember signing her birth certificate. He could remember rocking her to sleep the first few nights after bringing her home from the hospital; she had been so small. Her name was...then his eyes grew with worry. He looked past his wife toward the sleeping child. So innocent, so small; so beautiful, "I can't remember!"

Suddenly there was a bright flash of a white light that bathed
them in its heat before it faded away. Hiro and Molly stood staring at each other. The kitchen was gone, the house was gone. Everything had vanished into a white nothing. The two of them faced one another in a sea of white nothingness that expanded forever in all directions. A thin mist of a cloudy vapor swirled about heir feet as Molly gasped, "We're young again! What happened? How did we get here?" She felt her face and hair as she gazed about, "I can remember our lives together; decades of marriage, but now it feels like a fading memory of a movie once seen long ago. Were you a pirate?"

Hiro, pointed just behind her as he directed her attention, "I remember leaping into the vortex to save you. The rest of the questions, I think we should ask her." Molly grabbed Hiro's hand as she turned around to see a small child asleep on the ground, her head perched on her folded hands. Her blonde hair cascading about her like a golden blanket, her bright blue eyes stared at them in fear and panic and swelled with tears, "I'm scared."

Molly knelt beside the child before her, as the white mist swirled around them. Hiro placed a comforting hand on the young child's back as the little girl eagerly crawled into Molly's arms. "It has been so long."

"How long have you been here?' Hiro asked as Molly gently wiped away the tears from the girl's face.

"I don't know," she cried softly. "I have been alone for ages, until you two arrived."

Hiro stood and looked around as Molly tried to comfort the girl. "Don't leave me!" she begged. "Don't leave me, please! I will be a good girl. I will obey you. I will clean my room. I will be good, I promise!"

Molly wrapped her arms around the child and rested her chin on the top of the child's golden locks, "Please Mommy, don't leave me; I can't be alone any more."

Hiro raised his arms wide as he closed his eyes in concentration. With a flash of light they were all sitting on a picnic blanket in New York City Central Park, on a bright and sunny afternoon. "I know where we are."

Molly gasp as she looked around in wonder, "Hiro what have you done?"

Hiro grabbed the child's hands so she would be forced to look him in the eyes, "Tell me your name child. A father should always know his daughters name."

The child sighed with relief as she struggled to hold back her tears, "Melody."

~ Heroes - Rise of the Phoenix ~

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