(6) Lock Away The Secrets

Sylar stretched out on the sand, then looked under him to check up on Noah. The baby was still sleeping in the depression Sylar had made for him. The rising sun blinded him as he glanced to the ocean, expecting to see Claire for a moment before remembering what had happened. He was back in his own time now & his Claire was stuck thousands of years ahead of him for now. He stood up & looked around.

They were on an endless stretch of sandy beach. Set back from the shore was a large ocean-view house with a manicured property. Ordinarily, he would just take the house with Claire & Noah but in this era, that wasn't possible. He was now used to roaming the land without having to worry about where to live. The whole planet had been theirs. It would have been great for Noah but now in a world ruled by society, he had to set boundaries for the child.

This place was similar to what the three of them had, or perhaps will have; although it was the Mediterranean Sea instead of the Atlantic. Sylar had picked Israel for a number of reasons. He had never been here before & the thought of coming here had never once crossed his mind until now. No one here would know him. It had some of the best schools in the world for Noah someday & its endless advances in technology might one day serve his purpose of literally keeping the planet together so he could get his Claire back.

Then perhaps the three of them could live in a house like the one above the shore. Sylar looked at it again. It was a perfect place. But someone probably owned the house & rules applied to this time that weren't there in the future.

Sylar dropped down to the sand & sat next to Noah before the owner of the house would notice them. Noah let out one loud yelp causing his father to jump & look down at him. The wallet had fallen out of his pocket & smacked the poor baby in the face, waking him up. Sylar picked it up, ignoring the judgmental scowl. "Keep that up & I'll nickname you little Claire." Sylar absent-mindedly rifled through his wallet, expecting American money & American cards.

But instead, it had Israeli money already. He also found an Israeli credit card he had never had before. Digging deeper, he found two folded documents, one for him & one for Noah. Sylar now had dual citizenship for America & Israel & Noah was just Israel.

"Gotta be some mistake!" Sylar slowly stood up. "I don't remember ever getting citizenship for this country & who the hell knows that much about Noah already?" He pulled the glasses off & scanned the area as if looking for a kill. Someone had an unhealthy interest in his child & he didn't like it. His original power did all kinds of twists in his mind, trying to sort out what was going on. He put one hand into his coat & felt the golden gun still there & right next to it was a new phone. He started at it for a moment, then looked into the back pouch of his wallet to find a gold key. Real gold & another ability of his told him that it had been changed to gold by touch. "I did this. But how?" He looked back at the house again. Something told him that it was his & Noah's already. He fished Noah out of the nest of sand & holding the key in his free hand, he cautiously approached the house.

Though he could easily open any door using an ability, Sylar slipped the key into the lock just to see & sure enough, the door clicked open. He stepped inside to find the house already set up for someone with a young child. He placed Noah in the playpen in the massive living room & slowly moved part way through the house, keeping the entrance to the living room in sight. There was a note on the kitchen counter, a bar counter at that.

"Go back in time, old man."

Sylar glared at it for a moment. He looked at the credit card again. It was for an Israeli bank but the name on it was Claire Gray. He put the glasses back on & hurried back to the living room. Noah was back to his antics & again voiced his displeasure at the new look. "Shush!" Sylar held the baby's lips closed, by force alone. "Get used to them. I'll put the towel over you again if I have to. I'll be back in a moment." He looked at the clock on the wall, then checked his old Sylar watch he still had. He set it to the same time where it would stay since it didn't work anymore before he disappeared, then immediately reappeared. "Well, a moment for you anyway." He was gone once more. Noah glared at the spot he last saw his father, then looked sideways.

Sylar went back in time several years to the date when the credit card was made. He shape-shifted to look like Claire. It took him a while to get ID for a Claire Gray but once he got that fake identity set up, he went to the bank & founded an account that Noah Bennet would never know about when the time came, using money he himself created with Bob Bishop's ability. Next, he moved forward a couple of years & used the interest that built up to not only get the property but also have it ready. The next thing to do was more tricky: getting the documents for someone about to become the world's worst serial killer & a baby who won't be born for a few thousand years.

For himself, he decided to go back several years before that eclipse screwed up his life, before anyone, including himself, knew of Sylar. He had a fleeting thought of warning his young self but Noah was all he cared about now. It wasn't worth trying to save everyone else's lives he had taken if it meant messing the timeline too much & losing Noah. He took the new documents with him when he moved forward in time once more which caused the papers to disappear from the records long enough so that Noah Bennet wouldn't come across them when the time came.

Lastly, he had to come up with some way of explaining his son's birth not happening for a long time. He thought this would be the hardest task of all but he met an older man who only asked one question.

"What month & day was the child born?"

Sylar thought back to the date he had seen on the newspaper he had checked when he first returned to his time, then calculated about three months backwards from that. "May nineteenth."

"Very well," the man wrote it down then got up & went into the office across the hall. Fifteen minutes later he returned & handed over the finished documents. "We will meet again, someday."

"We will?" Sylar was instantly suspicious.

"You should return to your son."

Sylar raised a hand to try grabbing the man but was somehow blocked. "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry," the man said. "I will be there to help you someday. Just go. You have no power over me. Not yet." He put his hand on Sylar's shoulder.

Sylar looked around but found himself on the shore the night he & his son first teleported to Israel. He found his other self still dozing near where Noah was partially hidden in the ground. Sylar stopped time & quickly set his own wallet the way it was that morning, then went into the house to write up the note. Finally, he returned to three seconds beyond the time he had started teleporting about.

Noah glared at the spot he last saw his father, then looked sideways. "Hey, there you are little one." Sylar picked Noah up. "I think we're mostly safe now. Except this one man I need to watch out for. But don't you worry," he held the baby close. "I can handle it just fine." He checked Noah over even though he knew the baby hadn't been left alone for more than a moment or two. "You know it's been almost seven months since I last saw you? I couldn't risk getting caught by coming for a visit. Oh well. That's over with now." He carried Noah to the kitchen. "I guess it's time to try feeding you." He watched Noah try to grasp a blue block with the letter H on it. "You're not going to like this. It's been only a few hours from your point of view since we got separated from your mother & you slept through most of it. But it's time you know she can't be with us right now."

He set Noah on the floor & got the milk ready. Once it was warm, he knelt down beside Noah. "Alright, here goes nothing." He held the bottle out. Noah turned his head away & continued playing with the block. Sylar pulled the block away, causing Noah to almost start crying but was silenced with the bottle. His father had tricked him. He eventually managed to get away from it, not sucking from the bottle. Sylar tried again but Noah liked the bottle about as much as he liked the glasses. Sylar set the bottle aside. "We'll try later then, hmm?"

More than one 'later' came & went with no success. Sylar knew the baby needed to eat sooner or later but it seemed nothing short of a tube would work. Noah wanted his mother. Sylar had even tried to shift to the likeness of Claire & attempted to use her to offer the bottle but Noah wasn't fooled.

Still as Claire, Sylar put the bottle aside again. "Do you have any better ideas?" Noah put one hand out & began grasping around until suddenly, Sylar yelled in pain, shifted out of Claire's shape without even thinking & dropped Noah. Fortunately, it was only a few inches since both were still on the floor. "NOAH!" Sylar was once more rubbing his chest. "Ugh! What is it with you grabbing that nipple all the time? Ow!" Noah had the nerve to laugh at him. The whole process had also caused the glasses to slip off which made Noah extra happy. Sylar shook his head. "But for all my powers, I'm defeated by a mere baby!" He pushed himself up onto his palms, feeling something wet. The bottle had broken as well. "Perfect!" Sylar grumbled. He held up his wet fingers, then looked at Noah. He held out his hand & touched the baby's lips. Noah instantly sucked. "Oh is that how you want it?" Sylar got up to get some fresh milk but put it in a bowl this time.

Noah was used to feeling flesh when having milk. His mother's breast or his father's fingers, it mattered not so long as it was not the foreign feeling of a bottle. Though it took a while, he did finish the entire bowl. Sylar pushed it all aside & lay down next to his son. "Alright. Let's break you out of that as soon as possible." He stretched like a cat & was instantly asleep.

When he woke up, it was dark once more & worse, Noah was gone! Sylar jumped to his feet & turned the kitchen light on. After a quick scan around the floor, he moved to the next room & the next, turning each light on & calling his son's name. He returned to the kitchen several minutes later. "Calm down," he told himself. "Just go back in time & see what happens." He looked once more at the spot where they had been sleeping together & saw his glasses still lying where they had fallen. He bent down to grab them & there was Noah under the table, passed out. Sylar dropped into a chair by the table & rubbed his nose with both hands. "Claire, if I didn't have your power right now I'd have died of a heart attack."

He stared at the opposite wall. "What am I doing? I have no business with a baby. I take life, not raise it up." He leaned over to look under the table. Seeing Noah sleeping there, he knew there was no way he could give the child up. Noah was his to protect. He just had to be more careful, not just with his powers but also for keeping a better eye on Noah. Today the kid only managed to go a few feet yet caused sheer panic for his father. What about tomorrow? Or when Noah was growing up? Sylar pulled Noah out from under the table & put him in the playpen where he couldn't escape, then lay back on the sofa nearby.

It took almost two weeks before Noah eventually accepted the bottle. It was almost a full month of arguing before the baby finally gave up his fight against the glasses. By now, he was capable of making several noises & was often babbling to himself. He was crawling around easily as well & more than once, Sylar used his force power out of sheer instinct to snatch the baby back from going too far. Noah was quickly disciplined by being put into the playpen while Sylar silently berated himself for using an ability around, not to mention on, the child.

One day the playpen stopped acting as a holding cell. Sylar walked into the living room to find Noah hanging inside by his hands from the edge of the pen. He had somehow managed to crawl up on a large square cushion to grab hold of the edge but then the cushion had fallen over & he couldn't figure out how to get down. "NOAH!" Sylar ran at the baby & snatched him up, partly by force & partly by physically putting both hands on his son. "What the hell are you doing? If I didn't have your mother's power, I'd have gray hair by now!"

Noah looked at him & said, "Adda."

"What?" Sylar half-smiled for a moment. He sat down on the couch with Noah still in his arms. It sounded like Noah was close to saying Daddy so Sylar slowly sounded out the word for him.

Noah managed to say "Adda," again, looking at his father with an almost hurt expression, before rubbing one side of his face with a hand.

Without thinking, Sylar let slip his first ability once more, taking a short look through Noah before reigning the monstrosity back. "Oh. They're starting to come out, aren't they? Well Daddy has a little present for you, buddy." Sylar put Noah back in the pen & left for a moment. He returned with a cooling teething ring & all but filled Noah's mouth with the Oragel.

Sylar now had to make extra sure all objects not suitable for babies were placed well away from Noah on top of trying to keep track of his son's movements. Noah cut the first tooth within a week & then they had a break before the next one started.

Noah was soon following his father everywhere throughout the house. Once he could crawl, he moved fast. Sylar only let him on his own on the bottom floor but still carried him around if they were upstairs so Noah wouldn't charge down the flight of steps even though there was a perfectly secure baby-gate blocking the way. Noah also started reaching out to touch anything Sylar had touched. He had even dashed forward to grab a razor-blade Sylar had dropped once & nearly succeeded but he was caught just in time by the force power.

"Noah, no!" Sylar glared at him. Noah sat back against the wall as Sylar picked up the blade. "Don't touch." He put the blade away then put on the glasses. Noah quickly moved forward again. Sylar crouched down & pulled off the glasses. "No." Noah stopped moving for a moment, then backed up. Sylar put the glasses back on & Noah headed straight for him. He picked the child up. "Good. You're learning. No glasses means trouble."

From then on, Sylar always removed the glasses when scolding Noah. It didn't happen often but he trained Noah to associate no glasses with being in trouble. "Finally," Sylar laughed softly to himself. "I remember some very different arguments when you first saw the glasses. Told you that you would learn."

Noah's response was taking his first step. Literally. He had been sitting at the bottom of the stairs & then somehow pulled himself up by using the bottom one for support. A moment later he plopped back down on the floor.

"When we say taking your first step," Sylar leaned down to grab Noah's hands. "That's not quite what we mean. Let's try this." He helped Noah up & they moved about a step & a half before Sylar picked Noah up & stood straight. "No wonder most parents get bad backs. Fortunately it only lasts a moment for me."

That first step opened up a whole new set of worries for Sylar. Soon, Noah was tottering around & more than once, Sylar had to pull him back by force. Sometimes, he just hung on by his power alone with Noah halfway across the yard on his way to the street but could go no further with this strange invisible leash on him. Sylar was now using his force on his son much the same he had used on Claire a few years ago to make her go where he wanted. The only difference was, his son didn't know any better. Sylar silently laughed at the irony of it all. He let Noah go only so far before pulling him back so Noah started testing him & it soon became a battle of limits.

"Noah, don't you dare take another step towards that road. ... Go ahead & touch that cactus. Go on! ... And just where do you think YOU are going? ... Get off that beach! The tide is coming in! … Don't make me take the glasses o—oh my God! I'm taking them off NOW!" Noah was sharply yanked back to his father's arms. Glasses dangling in his free hand, Sylar glared at Noah. "You're about as much trouble as your mother!" He hustled the boy inside, then put the glasses back on.

While he went to pour some milk, Noah began running back & forth in the hallway until he smacked right into the wall. Sylar paused to send him that condescending all-knowing smile all parents eventually do at him. "That'll learn ya." Noah sat there & started crying. Sylar casually poured himself some coffee. "Oh you're not hurt. Daddy knows a thing or two about pain, believe me. You just want to be coddled." He leaned back against the counter, still smiling. "Someone should call the wah-mbulance. Let's try that now." He pretended to hold a phone with one hand to his ear. "Hi Peter. Your great-nephew just ran into a wall. What should I do? Oh just leave him there? Exactly as I thought." Realizing his father wasn't falling for it, Noah slowly got up & went into the living room where he started running around again. "I knew you were fine," Sylar teased as entered a moment later & handed the child his drinking cup filled with milk. Noah drank it all, gave the cup back & ran around the room four more times before promptly falling to the floor, fast asleep. Sylar dropped onto the couch, heaving a sigh of relief. "I love Benadryl." Yes, he totally just drugged the hell out of his kid & wasn't even ashamed. He needed a break!

As he got older, Noah started 'talking' more, making various sounds. He tried copying his father as much as possible but couldn't quite get the words. Then one day he said his first two words & first phrase all at once without realizing it & left Sylar in tears from laughing. Sylar had taken Noah to the beach to get used to the water. He pointed out over the water & said, "Look Noah. There's the ocean."

"Oshit."

Sylar stared at him. "WHERE did you learn that word? I certainly didn't swear around you. Did I?" He thought hard trying to remember. "Never mind. Come," he picked Noah up. "Let's see the ocean."

"Oshit."

"Noah!"

Noah put his hand out towards the water as if pointing like his father just did. "Oshit."

Sylar suddenly clued in. The poor boy was trying to say ocean but couldn't put it together just yet. He put the boy down, trying not to laugh. "Ocean. NNNN." Noah tried again but just couldn't do the N sound. After a few moments, both were crying, Sylar from being in stitches from laughing too much & Noah from being laughed at & not understanding what was going on. When both had finally calmed down, Sylar lifted Noah up & held him close. "Ok, we'll work on that one later then?"

Noah's first birthday was soon just around the corner & Sylar was now faced with a problem more personal to him than to his son. He had sheltered the boy for the first year of his life. It had only been the two of them most of the time. They lived away from the great city, Haifa, about two hours by driving & had only ever entered it if either of them had needed something. But Noah needed to start learning social skills if he was ever to function properly in a school which meant that Sylar had to return to society, himself. He wondered if he had been rehabilitated enough to do it. Would he slip up at the first sighting of someone with an ability? If he did, it would be all over. Unwanted 'company' would learn he was back in the proper time & where he was & he would lose Noah. On top of it all, Sylar was also slightly feral now, being used to first having an entire planet for himself, Claire & Noah & now living in a grand beach house with Noah, but no one else.

They both needed to learn how to live among people.

He planned to start properly integrating Noah into society on his birthday, but that day came & went. Sylar didn't want to return. They stayed home by themselves, spending most of the birthday by the water. Sylar gave Noah a small bear, his first plush toy & something similar to what Claire had collected in this time, which Noah immediately took to, hanging onto it for dear life. Sylar liked having Noah all to himself but what he liked & what Noah needed were two different things. Still, it took Sylar an extra month to get over himself.

What finally motivated Sylar to start being more sociable with Noah was the Israeli school system he eventually looked up on his phone. School was mandatory from age six to eighteen while preschools & nurseries started as early as aged two or some aged three. Out of the grade schools, there were four types: state secular, state religious, arab & private.

"Well, we don't want private," Sylar began. "I need you close to keep an eye on you. There are things out there most people don't know about. I'm one of them. I haven't just been to the other side, I AM the other side. We don't want anything religious either. No, uh, yeshiva schools. Hey, my first Hebrew word! Absolutely no idea what it means." He leaned across the table towards Noah who was eating oatmeal in his high chair. "Let's get one thing straight, we are not religious. No God would have allowed me to exist & if there was a God, then it sure hates me. Anyway, technically us Gray folks would be Catholic. They have Jesus. Jews don't. So let's just not get into any of that! Alright?" Noah responded by holding up some oatmeal as an offering. "No no, you can eat that mushy thing. I have all my teeth."

Sylar sat back in his seat. "There is one thing you do need to know about. Sabbath. Saturday is sacred in this country & you will be making Jewish friends. So you'll learn how to behave for Sabbath & not ask your friends to do something on that day that they normally wouldn't do. You don't want to end up a social pariah like me." He paused a moment before adding, "Although it's for different reasons for me." He pulled out his phone & began looking something up. "We'll get you into a routine for it. I know it involves candles. Nothing wrong with candles. Hmm," Sylar read through his search. "Would you look at that? Some Protestants still prefer Sabbath to the so-called Lord's day. Seventh Day Adventists. Never heard of them. They even say Sunday is the mark of the beast instead of the microchip & here I was told we all keep Sunday holy for Jesus." He looked at Noah. "That's another reason we aren't religious. None of them seem to agree on anything. We won't get involved with that." He continued searching. "Finally found the candles. So that's what a menorah is. We'll get one as well as some Shabbat candles & when you're old enough, you can light them at the right times. That'll help teach you to be careful around fire as well."

"Yah-yah."

"Good, I'm glad you agree," Sylar said before going on. "Apart from that though, we won't be bothering with anything religious. Looks like state secular for you. All teach Hebrew & by age ten you will have to pick up English or French. You're getting English from me so you will take the French." Sylar was silent for a moment. "Although the Petrelli side of our family is Catholic. Gives me a whole new reason to go Protestant," he scoffed. "We hate Petrelli blood too, by the way. I already killed one of them but I gutted the wrong brother. Should have been Peter I put down. Oh well. Ah never mind. I need to stop talking about them since you're growing up. You're too young now but soon enough you'll start remembering stuff I tell you. I can't use you as a personal therapist for such topics any more. It's time to lock away all these secrets."

He put the phone on the table & leaned back in his chair. He noticed a small carton of chocolate milk on the counter & summoned it over. Halfway through opening it, he suddenly glanced at Noah who had been watching him intently. "I better stop using my powers around you as well. I can't have you accidentally exposing us when you really start talking & are at school." Sylar drank a bit of the milk before pouring a little into Noah's oatmeal. "You want to try some?" Noah looked at the darkening color but allowed his father to help him eat some. His face suddenly had a look of amazement at the new flavor. "Looks like you like it. Who doesn't like chocolate?" Sylar went on with a laugh. "So far, you seem to eat any flavor I give you. You take after me it seems, which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing right now. But I'll eat anything." After a short pause, he added, "Except brains. You know your mom asked me that one day? Most disgusting thing I ever heard!" Noah responded with a laugh, earning a glare. "Thank you. Thank you very much!"

Sylar sighed before going on. "Well, if I'm not going to use powers around you anymore, that means I need to get a car again. I can't just be teleporting us everywhere anymore." He got up to get his wallet still in the coat pocket. After rifling through the cards, Sylar held up one. "Great. My American driver's license expires in four months. After that, it's highly unlikely I will be able to get a new one." He caught Noah's eye. "Daddy's been a very bad boy. I messed up, big time."

"Yah."

"You weren't supposed to agree!" Sylar glared indignantly. "Don't worry, I'll figure it out. That's what my first power is for." He looked at the bank card for Claire Gray. "Never mind. I just got it."

"Daddy."

Sylar dropped the wallet, its contents spilling out onto the floor. "You said it! Finally." He moved around the table to Noah's side. "Can you say that again? Hey. Look at me. Say Daddy again." Noah did look at him, but attempted to shove some more cereal in his mouth instead. Sylar knelt in front of the high-chair & tried coaxing him to speak for several minutes but Noah paid him no mind. "Alright," Sylar sighed, giving up. "We'll try again later."

"Oshit."

Sylar rolled his eyes. "That is another thing we need to stop doing. No more swearing. No more using powers in front of you & no more talking about our dysfunctional family either."

After a moment, he stood up & gave Noah a pat on the head. "That includes your mom. Right now, she hates me & it's ok. She has a good reason. I didn't treat her well at all in this timeline. But finding out about you would only confuse her, probably make her hate me more. I can't have you go looking for her so ... yeah." His voice fell to a whisper. "This is the last conversation we have about her, ok?" He leaned against the bar counter & watched Noah from afar. "You really do look a lot like her & you're just as much trouble as she is. But I can't have you knowing even that." He turned away & felt something wet on one side of his face. He wiped away a tear so rare, it was almost magic to see one from him. Fact was, he loved Claire deeply & properly now, no longer as her creepy stalker, but she would never accept that for five thousand years. It would be a long wait. "I won't let you die, Claire."