The same night Noah sends his associate to wipe the complete memory of the boy who attacked his daughter and files a police report the next day, leaving out that it was Stephen who pummeled the teen.
|a week later|
Claire is walking home with Stephen, Zach having accompanied them a fair way before splitting off to his own home.
"So, now that the whole rape situation has been dealt with with Brody going to Juvie and really having amnesia, other than a certain faker I know what do you think I should do about my parents? I mean my real parents. My dad said I could meet them." Claire says.
"First of all, faking being an amnesiac was my only option and secondly I don´t understand the question I thought you wanted to meet them for a while now?" Stephen replies.
"Yeah but how do I ask them if they are like us?" She questions.
"well that is a pickle, hey if you want me to, I could come over ´coincidentally´ and take a peek under their hoods. Of course, that will only help so much but still…" Stephen offers, putting air quotes at coincidentally.
"You know if you offered this before what happened with Brody I would have slapped you, but now I think that is a good idea." Claire agrees.
"Good thing you didn´t want me to remove the memory in that case." Stephen says jokingly.
´for you maybe´ she thinks, continuing on their way in silence during which Stephen notice her saddened behavoir at him mentioning what happened to her but refrains from looking in her thoughts.
"Hey on another note, homecoming is soon, would you like to go together?" Stephen asks nervously.
"Like as your date?" She asks knowingly.
"Yeah, I mean that should be obvious, I told you I´m crushing on you a week ago and the only thing I got as reply was 'Oh I just wanted to know'" Stephen tells her, annoyed and pretending to be her when he quotes her.
"Phe, you should be glad I even hang out with you after what you pulled the other day." Claire tells him.
"What? Tell me you didn´t like me and Zach cheering your cheer squad on." Stephen says with a smirk, crossing his arms expectantly.
"Alright you got me there it was funny as heck when you made fun of Jackie." Claire admits, laughing loudly.
"So about my parents, what if my biological parents can do what I do? Do I try to go with them? Do I ask them why this is happening to me?" Claire asks him, stopping on her driveway and turning towards him.
"Don´t think I don´t know what you just did there and what is with the what if questions? Wait and see what happens. I couldn´t give you an advise even if I wanted to." Stephen replies, running his hand through his hair.
"What about your parents? Were they like you?" She asks.
"Yes and no." Stephen replies, sitting down on the curb with her joining him shortly after.
"First of all, yes they were both tomorrow people. But my mom didn´t want to be one and tried to hide and discard her powers to the best of her abilities. My father on the other hand was the leader of our generation of evolved humans. He was pretty much like me, I inherited his ability to stop time even. Hah, now that I think about it I would love to let you meet him and get advise from him but I would have to clinicly kill myself, hoping to come back to life afterwards for that to happen." Stephen tells her.
"I´m not even gonna ask." Claire tells him and walks away.
"Seriously I share my past with you and you walk away?" Stephen asks, feigning hurt as he follows her inside her home.
"Claire-bear. Oh and you brought company, nice to see you again Stephen." Noah Bennett greets the two teens.
"Hi Mr. Bennett, Mrs. Bennett good to see you too, uhm Claire invited me to study with her, I hope that´s OK with you?" Stephen greets them.
"Sure." Claire´s mother replies.
"Come on then." Claire tells Stephen, already going up the stairs to the second floor.
"In a sec, I actually need to talk to your dad real quick." Stephen says.
Claire gives him a confused and worried look but heads to her room anyways.
"What is it son?" Claire´s father asks.
"Well I wanted to ask if you need me to do anything with Brody´s case? I haven´t heard anything yet from you or the police." Stephen asks, taking a seat Noah pointed him to while the man sits down across from Stephen.
"Oh, no that will not be necessary, with Brody having lost all memories the judge will make him serve a mild sentence anyways much to my displeasure and when the police told me that Brody didn´t remember who attacked him I didn´t mention you, I told them Claire was knocked out and came to in front of our doorstep. The officer seemed to accept it, though I guess he suspected I wasn´t being entirely truthful." Noah explains.
"Oh, OK thanks I guess, you didn´t have to lie for me though." Stephen says.
"Son, I´m glad to have lied for you because if you hadn´t taught that Brody a lesson I would have and that would have made things messier than they are now." Noah tells Stephen.
"OK, still thanks. I´ll go join Claire for our study session now before she comes down here and drags me up by my ear." Stephen says jokingly.
"Go on then, but behave yourself. I meant what I said, if anyone hurts my little girl I will make them pay." Noah tells him and Stephen heads up to Claire´s room, where she is already sitting on her bed, waiting expectantly.
"What was that about? Did you tell him about me?" Claire asks Stephen worried, dragging him into her room and shutting the door behind them.
"No. It was about what happened last week. I wanted to know if I am supposed to give a statement or something but lucky for me your dad left me out of the police report." Stephen explains.
"Oh, good." Claire says almost on auto pilot, getting a look devoid of any emotion on her face.
|two days later – Bennett house|
Claire, her mother and father are sitting across from Claire's biological parents.
After an awkward start Noah and his wife excuse themselves, fetching drinks for their guests while Claire talks to her parents, asking them about their abilities, hobbys and genetic conditions and such but doesn´t get any answers she is looking for. An hour or two later Noah is walking Claire´s biological parents to their car when Stephen arrives.
"Oh, Hi Mr. Bennett." He greets Claire´s father, heading towards the house while concentrating and looking into the two people's minds that Claire's father is sending off.
"Hello." Stephen says knocking on the front door and peeking into the open house.
"In the kitchen." Claire yells towards him.
"So was it what you were hoping for?" Claire's mother asks.
"I don't know. I guess I wanted them to tell me who I am but they have no idea either." Claire replies thoughtfully, licking some frosting from a cupcake.
"I can tell you. You are a pretty blonde cheerleader with a bunch of homework." Stephen tells her jokingly, pulling up some papers from his backpack before catching a cupcake Claire hurled at him at his interruption.
"Hmm, looks good who made these?" Stephen asks, easily catching the projectile with help of his telekinesis, not that Claire's mother noticed.
"Claire and I made them together." The mother tells him proudly.
"That can´t be true Mrs. Bennett, I've seen Claire in home ec. And she almost set her hair on fire." Stephen says teasingly.
"We don´t even have home ec together." Claire retorts.
"OK I heard a story but you know in every story is a kernel of truth." Stephen says wisely, before taking a bite from his cupcake.
"Thank you for bringing Claire her homework. That's very nice of you." Mrs. Bennett thanks him.
"My pleasure." Stephen says after gulping down his bite.
"Can Stephen stay and catch me up on what I missed in school?" Claire asks her mother.
"Sure." Her mother agrees and Claire basically drags him upstairs, past Noah Bennett, who re-entered his home.
"Where are they going?" He asks his wife.
"Just studying. Stephen brought her the homework she missed today." She answers.
"So what did you see? Cause I struck out with them." Claire asks Stephen expectantly, throwing his bag on her bed and snatching his cupcake from his hand.
"Hey." He protests.
"Spill and you can have your treat." She says bossily.
"Am I your dog?" Stephen asks annoyed, flopping down on her bed and teleporting the cupcake into his hand.
"Wha…?" Claire asks shocked, feeling the sweet missing from her hand.
"Yes, I am that good." Stephen tells her with a mischievous smile.
"Stop playing around and tell me what I want to know." She demands, standing in front of him angrily, only for Stephen to keep munching on the cupcake.
"Please." She asks him nicely after two more seconds, sitting down next to him.
"Now was that so hard?" Stephen asks.
'Harder than you think' She thinks.
"I heard that." Stephen tells her telepathically while chewing on his cupcake and tapping her temple with a finger.
Claire glares at him and he gets back to topic.
"OK, look this might be hard to hear but they aren't your parents. They literally got a call a couple days ago tasking them to pretend to be your parents." Stephen tells her.
"From who?" Claire asks shocked.
"How should I know? I couldn't exactly go and ask them." Stephen replies.
"I'm just saying that whatever they told you isn't the truth and that your real parents are still out there somewhere most likely." Stephen explains.
"Great so I'm right back where I started." Claire sighs annoyedly.
"Sorry." He says, putting his hand on the girls' shoulder, with Claire taking his hand and putting it around her other shoulder while leaning into his side.
"What do I do now?" She asks him, feeling lost.
"First you take a bite of this delicious cupcake and then you`ll agree to go to homecoming with me." Stephen tell her, offering her his half-eaten cupcake.
"Dream on amnesia boy." Claire says, taking a bite from the cupcake.
|one and a half weeks later|
Claire and Zach are walking to an empty spot at the school´s open air auditorium, which are basically large stairs in a circle.
"What´s wrong?" Zach asks, seeing the sour expression on his friends' face.
"Jackie just killed my appetite." Claire sighs, setting down her tray next to Zach's.
"Looks like the principal is posting the homecoming queen announcement." Zach says, nodding towards the principal who heads to the bulletin board.
"Whoopy me." Claire says not interested.
"Don´t you want to see if you won?" Zach asks.
"What´s the point?" Claire asks, doubting she´ll win.
"You're a finalist Claire." Zach reminds her.
Claire gets up and heads over to the bulletin board alongside the rest of the cheerleading squad and football team.
"Kinda nervy for someone in your position to be running for homecoming queen." Jackie taunts Claire.
"My position?" Claire asks confused.
"You know, pariah. You´re the reason the MVP is in the hospital and going to Juvie. Annihilating any hope of us actually winning the game." Jackie says just as the group walks past Stephen, who uses his telekinesis to make the large football player behind Jackie trip and knock her over.
Claire grins and hears snickering from the side, seeing Stephen lying on a bench, giving her a fake salute.
Once the cheerleading squad and the football player reach the bulletin board the cheerleaders as well as Claire herself are shocked to see that Claire won the election to homecoming queen until the school's geeks and outcasts start cheering her name and applauding for Claire.
Once the crowd disperses Claire makes her way over to Stephen, who by now has joined Zach and is in the process of stealing her fries.
"Hey!" She says slapping his hand away when he reaches for another fry.
"What? I´m hungry." He says.
"Here you can have my pudding, it's a vegetable." Zach says annoyed at the cafeteria food while offering the brown paste towards Stephen.
"Thanks, I think I'll rather starve. So my Queen what will be your first decree?" Stephen asks Claire jokingly.
"For you to stop bugging me you semi-stalker." She tells him, sitting down next to Zach with Stephen sitting behind them.
"semi-stalker that´s a first." He says impressed at the nickname.
After finishing their meal the three head towards the lockers. Along the way Claire gets congratulated by students she doesn´t even know.
"I don´t get it, everyone who was my friend isn´t and who wasn´t is." Claire says confused.
"You got the freak vote." Zach explains.
"What?" She asks.
"Everyone like Jackie voted for her and everyone else voted for you. In this school the unpopular vastly outnumber the popular. It made for a great campaign." Zach explains.
"You campaigned for me? You think all this school spirit stuff is stupid." Claire asks surprised.
"I never said that, I said it's beneath you. But now you at least have a little piece of your old life back." Zach says.
"Oh and another thing. Here, Zach helped me find this book. It has a chapter on regeneration we thought it might help you." Stephen says, handing her a book written by Chandra Suresh.
"What's with you?" Zach asks, seeing Claire freeze up when she accepts the book.
"You´re being so nice. I've never been this nice to either of you. I mean I'm nice but I could be nicer." Claire says.
"Then why don´t you?" Zach asks.
"Congratulations Claire. And look it's the gay boys you date. But only one of you can wear the tiara." Jackie says, walking up behind the three.
Claire turns around and hits Jackie in the face, knocking her to the floor.
Later that day at home Claire's father forbids her from going to the homecoming game and forbids her from leaving the house. Unknown by Claire he only wants to protect her from what the painter Isaac, who paints the future foresaw.
|Two hours later|
Claire is lying on her bed, texting Zach when suddenly a familiar voice comes from behind her.
"So this is what you're doing to prepare for your coronation?" Stephen asks, leaning against the back of the chair in her room.
"I'm grounded, what am I supposed to do?" She asks.
"Well I could think of something, just go anyways." Stephen suggests but sees her uncertain about it.
"Look, I'm not a fan of going against your father either. He can be scary, but you deserve this. Plus you don't want Zach to have done all that work for nothing and let Jackie snatch what is yours, do you?" Stephen asks, pushing her button.
"You're right. And You know what? You can be my date for the homecoming dance tonight." Claire tells him.
"Finally she comes to her senses." Stephen says grinning at hearing this.
"What now? How do I get out?" Claire asks, grabbing her previously packed bag and looks around.
"You did not just ask me that." Stephen says, offering her his hand which she takes with a grin, only to reappear in Stephen's apartment.
"What are we doing here?" She asks slightly scared.
"Relax, I just need to change." Stephen says, disappearing in his bedroom.
Coming out at most 3 minutes later, wearing a black suit and white shirt.
"Look who can clean up nicely." She says jokingly.
"Gee, don't be too excited." He says grinning, but sees her freeze up.
"What is it?" Stephen asks.
"Nothing, just what Jackie said, do they even want me at the game if the quarterback is gone because of me?" Claire asks uncertainly.
"Claire, give me your hands." Stephen tells her, offering his palms to her and she places her hands in his after a slight moment of hesitation.
"Trust me OK?" Stephen says and leads her hands to his head with his hands around hers. The next thing Claire knows she is back at the field where Brody tried to rape her and sees herself lying on the floor with a branch sticking through her head and Brody standing over her.
"What is this?" She asks terrified.
"My memory. I want you to see that if anyone is to blame for losing the school's MVP it's Brody himself, or blame me. But look what happened to you, how are you responsible for any of it?" An outline of Stephen tells her, pointing at her body before she sees Stephen attack and beat Brody within an inch of his life before falling to his knees and grasping his head in pain.
"What happened to you back then?" Claire asks, when Stephen pulls them out of his memory, letting go of her hands.
"It's part of my mutation or whatever it is that makes us different. I can't kill anyone, which in most cases is a good thing, in others however is annoying as hell." Stephen informs her.
"So Mr. Look at me I'm perfect has a flaw afterall." Claire says amused.
"Come on, let's just go, we don't want to be late for your own coronation now do we?" He asks, offering her his hand once again. And she grabs it, reappearing in a treeline just outside her school.
"Let's go Claire." Stephen says, heading to the school with her following close behind.
When the two arrive at the school they make their way to the locker rooms and see a man standing at the school's trophy case, where a picture of Jackie is, showing her receiving a medal from the fire marshal for supposedly saving a person from the train accident.
"Hey, do you two know this girl?" Peter asks the two teens heading his way.
"Yeah, Jackie. She's a cheerleader but between you and me she's nothing special." Claire says.
"She rushed into a fire to safe a man, I think that's special." Peter replies.
"Yeah, maybe I'm just yealous." Claire says and continues on to the locker room.
"Are you a reporter?" Stephen asks Peter.
"No, just curious." He replies.
"Well listen, the cheerleaders will be on the field for the halftime show in a bit, if you want I can show you where." Stephen offers.
"Sure thanks." He agrees and the two slowly make their way to the footballfield while exchanging some smalltalk.
"I'm Stephen by the way." Stephen introduces himself, offering his hand.
"Peter." Peter replies, shaking the teen's hand.
"So that girl just now?" Peter asks.
"Claire. She's also a cheerleader." Stephen says.
"And your girlfriend?" Peter asks with a smirk.
"I'm hoping one day." Stephen grins back when they suddenly hear a loud noise and the power goes out.
Back with Claire she was in an argument with Jackie until suddenly the power goes out and a man grabs Jackie, slamming her against a locker with Jackie screaming in panic while Claire tries to help her, only for the man to throw her off himself and make her fly across the room against a wall, before holding Jackie's mouth closed and using his telekinesis to cut open the girls skull.
Claire re-sets her broken arm, which bend out of shape and gets up, catching the man's attention while her cut up face heals itself. Stephen suddenly appears next to her and steps in front of Claire, while the man lets the now dead Jackie drop to the floor.
"Run!" Stephen yells at her, staring down the fellow telekinetic user.
"Who are you?" Stephen asks, preparing himself for a fight.
"No one you know." He says and pushes Stephen away with his telekinesis, only for him to teleport behind the man and take a swing at him.
The man blocks the punch, saying "impressive."
He reaches out with his fingers, attempting to do what he just did to Jackie when suddenly Stephen is gone from his grasp, having stopped time and run out of the room, following Claire to make sure she's safe.
"Are you OK?" Peter asks Claire, who runs into him, bloodied and frightened.
"Run!" Stephen yells at them, running towards them with the unknown man following the three.
"Keep going run!" Peter tells Claire, turning to face the man wearing a baseball hat, who uses his powers to throw locker doors at Peter and Stephen, who is now standing next to Peter.
"Get down." Stephen yells and uses his own telekinesis to push the locker doors to the side when they come close. The two then follow Claire, who is screaming for help as she runs to the atrium when their assailant starts to run towards them.
"Claire climbs to the top of the atrium, which leads to a 30 foot drop and stands there cornered with Peter catching up to her and Stephen waiting for the attacker near the door leading to the atrium.
When the attacker steps through Stephen punches him with a telekinetically enhanced fist, sending the man flying a couple feet, only to get back up and ignore him as he rushes up to Claire.
Stephen teleports next to the man and grabs onto him, teleporting him to the abandoned refinery just out of town.
"Who are you?" The attacker yells angrily.
"That's what I was going to ask." Stephen says angrily.
"People call me Sylar." He replies, taking off his baseball hat and showing Stephen his face, which is void of any emotion other than anger.
"Well Sylar, I know that you have one T but what about the other three?" Stephen asks, using a combo of teleporting and telekinetically enhancing his kick to kick the man to the ground.
"Ugh." Sylar grunts.
"You are good. Which makes me want to see what makes you tick even more." Sylar says, grinning like a madman.
"Stay away from my friends!" Stephen yells at Sylar, holding the man up in a chokehold with his superior telekinesis until he falls to his knees, hearing the familiar ringing in his head and he teleports away, but much to his horror Sylar jumped and grabbed onto his foot just in time, teleporting back to the atrium where Peter sends Claire away to get help and grapples with Sylar, ending up with the two of them falling down the 30 foot drop.
Claire gets out of the main entrance and sees Peter lying on the floor in a bloody pile and goes over to him fearfully, murmuring "No" to herself when suddenly Peter coughs loudly and sits up, looking around confused and twists his legs back into place while grunting painfully.
Claire watches this hopefully.
"How did you?" She asks.
"Where is he?" Peter asks, looking around for Sylar.
"I don't know I found you like this." Claire tells him.
"Go get help OK?" Peter tells her.
"OK, Hey what's your name?" She asks before taking off to get help.
"Peter." He tells her.
"I'm Claire." She replies.
"You're the one. By saving you did I save the world?" Peter asks.
"I don't know? I'm just a cheerleader." Claire tells him confused and runs to get help. Luckily she runs into her father, who went looking for her once he realized that she went missing.
"Dad, it was terrible." Claire says.
"I know." Noah tells her.
"We have to get back. Peter and Stephen. They saved my life. We have to get back and help them." Claire says.
"No, the police will take care of everything. You're lucky to be alive." Noah tells her.
"Not luck dad, I have something I have to tell you." Claire says in tears.
In the meantime, Sylar ran away and into an agent of the company, who uses her powers to make Sylar fall asleep with the help of the Haitian.
Back at the Autrium Stephen runs after where Claire disappeared to and finds Peter, still fixing his broken body.
"What happened? Where is Claire?" He asks worried out of his mind.
"She's safe. Getting help. Where is the guy?" Peter asks, breathing heavily while sitting in a pool of blood.
"I don't know." Stephen says ashamed while trying to locate him telepathically.
He finds Claire and asks 'Claire, are you alright?'
'Yeah, my father found me and called the police, what about you and Peter?' thinks back.
'We're OK I think, but the guy is gone.' Stephen replies.
"Hands in the air!" An officer yells at the two.
"What? He's getting away." Peter yells in protest while both he and Stephen get arrested.