Noah called out to his daughter as soon as he caught sight of her. She was standing on the other end of the hallway and looked like she could do with a friendly face.
Claire was listening intently to what Madeline had to say. The woman was telling her everything she needed to know about the press conference, what was to be expected from her and what she could expect from them, when she suddenly heard her father call her name. She turned her head and saw him coming towards her. "Dad."
"Hey." When Noah stood next to his daughter, he put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the top of her head. She seemed a bit nervous, which was completely understandable. He just hoped she knew what she was getting herself into. "You still wanna go through with it?"
"Yeah..." Claire answered with a frown. She had not changed her mind about the press conference and she wasn't going to. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Mr. Bennet, I presume?" Dr. Gibson said as she held out her hand to introduce herself.
"Call me Noah," he replied. He took her hand and shook it. "And yes, I'm Claire's father."
"Madeline Gibson."
"You were the one who arranged all this for my daughter?"
"I am the one who set everything in motion, yes. I saw what your daughter did. That was a very brave thing to do, but I think there are better and more appropriate ways for her to tell her story." Dr. Gibson turned to Claire. "That is what you want, isn't it?"
"All I want is to tell the truth and yes, I think that this is the best way to do that."
"I thought so too. As I was saying, this will be no ordinary press conference. You can say whatever you want to say. Those people in there, they don't know anything. They only know what you did and said at Central Park. They will have questions, but you don't have to answer all of them, not if you don't want to. There are no rules, the only thing you have to do is talk."
"That shouldn't be too hard," Claire didn't know who she was trying to convince when she said that, herself or Dr. Gibson. She only knew that she was dead nervous about the press conference.
"No, it shouldn't. And you're not going to be doing it on your own. Noah, I have arranged a seat for you as well."
"Yes, about that," Noah started as he took his arm off Claire's shoulders. "I brought someone with me. A... friend of mine. Will it be alright if he joins us at the press conference?"
"Who is this someone?" Dr. Gibson took a pen and a small notebook from the inside of her jacket.
Noah pointed his finger at the entrance, to where he just came from. "That man, the one talking to the hotel security. His name is Edgar."
Dr. Gibson scribbled something down in her notebook and looked up. "What is this man's last name?"
"I..." Noah realized he didn't know. He didn't know anything about Edgar, apart from his first name, his ability and the fact that he was one of the carnies. He wondered if that was going to be a problem. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" She narrowed her eyes. "Is there something you do know about this man?"
Noah shrugged and exchanged a quick look with his daughter. "Only that he worked at the Sullivan Bros. Carnival."
"What is his reason for joining us at the press conference?"
Noah looked at Claire again. This was what she wanted, for people to talk about their abilities openly without being afraid of being hunted and experimented on. For every single person, power or no power, to live together in peace. He looked at Edgar. The man had agreed to show his ability and to just be there in case they had questions about Samuel. Noah had to convince him first, but eventually he agreed. Here we go. "Edgar has an ability, like Claire."
Dr. Gibson looked up at Noah and knitted her brows, obviously taken by surprise. "He can heal?"
"No, no. He has a different kind of ability."
"Which is?"
"He's fast, very fast. Probably the fastest man alive."
"Very well then. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be joining us at the press conference. Although, I don't think we can get an extra seat for him at the table."
"That's alright. I'm pretty sure he won't mind."
Claire was getting a little impatient. She didn't mind if Edgar joined them. The idea of not being the only person with an ability in that room was actually quite comforting. She just really wanted to talk to her dad alone. She had been dying to find out about what happened after she left the carnival. "Dr. Gibson, can I have a moment alone with my dad?"
"Yes, of course. Just remember, you only have a few minutes left before we start."
"Thank you." Claire waited until Dr. Gibson was out of earshot, before she felt safe enough to talk. She lowered her voice and asked, "Why did you bring him here?"
"It might help if there's someone else at the press conference. Someone with a different ability. I thought that that was what you wanted."
"Yes, but why him?"
"Because he's actually a good guy, Claire."
"I know." Claire knew that Edgar was one of the good guys. It took a while for him to realize that Samuel's intentions were ill-conceived, but he had made the right decision in the end. "I just thought that you were going to get Peter."
Peterdecided to run off with Sylar. Noah didn't know what to tell her. He had no idea how to explain that Peter had chosen to protect his brother's murderer instead of handing him over, like he should have done.
"Dad?" Claire asked when he still hadn't given her an answer. "Did something happen to Peter?" Her dad had told her he wasn't going after Sylar, but what if Sylar went after him? Or Peter? What if Peter needed help? What if he was hurt? Even worse, what if he was already dead? "Tell me what happened!"
Noah placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders to calm her down. "Nothing happened, Claire. Believe me, Peter is fine." He's not. There is something seriously wrong with that guy. "I promise I will tell you everything, but not right now. There's not enough time. The press conference is about to start."
Claire sighed and turned her head away for a moment. If something bad had happened to Peter and her dad knew about it, he would have told her by now. He knew how important her uncle was to her. He knew she would never forgive him if he didn't tell her. And besides, he was right. She had to abandon all thoughts of Sylar and focus on the press conference instead. "You're right. Let's go."
Noah beckoned for Edgar to come.
Edgar finished his conversation with the security guard and walked towards daughter and father. "They wouldn't let me keep my knives," he said as he rolled his eyes. "Oh, well. Are we ready?" He seemed pretty excited about the whole thing.
"I had no idea you wanted this so much," Noah said.
"Well, no. Not really. I mean, I'm not looking forward to the whole being-on-television thing. But at least I can be myself."
"I know exactly what you mean," Claire said and she couldn't help but smile at the prospect of never having to pretend to be someone she wasn't, ever again.
Dr. Gibson opened the door to the press room and glanced at her watch. "They're about to start." She turned to Edgar. "I've informed them about you. You can come inside with us, but you'll have to stand."
Edgar thanked her with a nod of his head and gave Claire a thumb's up before he entered the room.
Claire took a deep breath. She was becoming more and more nervous by the second. "Okay, then. This is it."
They followed Dr. Gibson inside.
As soon as Claire entered the room, she froze. The pressroom was huge and there were so many people. She wasn't counting, but a quick look around the room told her there were probably about a hundred journalists and reporters. They were sitting on chairs in rows from the front, all the way to the back of the room. They were all going to listen to her. They were all going to look at her. They were already looking at her. Claire started to feel a lump form in her throat and she wasn't entirely sure, but she was pretty sure she was sweating.
"It's okay, Claire." Dr. Gibson was standing right behind her. "Sit down when you're ready. You can take the middle seat."
Great, Claire thought as she smiled nervously. I'm the center point.
She sat down behind a long table and shortly after, her father took the seat to her right and Dr. Gibson the one to her left. From the corner of her eye she saw Edgar on her right, leaning against the wall behind them.
Dr. Gibson began the press conference by introducing all four of them, including herself. The woman turned out to be a police psychologist from Baltimore. Claire had told her a bit about herself and her dad, so she could use that information to do the introductions. She wondered what Dr. Gibson would tell them about Edgar, since she didn't have much information about the man, but the woman did a good job. She spoke about the carnival and included Edgar in the story by introducing him as someone who worked there.
But then she suddenly turned to Claire. "Would you like to start?"
Claire gave a faint smile and then looked at her audience. There are so many of them. "Uhm..." What am I supposed to say? She looked at her father. What would he say? No. She had to do it without his help, that was how she wanted it to be. She had made the decision all on her own. So how do I start?
Then it dawned on her, that maybe the right way to start wasn't by saying anything.
She had to show it to them.
She leaned to her right and whispered to her dad, "Do you have something sharp?"
Noah's eyes widened and he shook his head slowly. He knew why Claire needed something sharp. She was going to use it to cut herself in front of all those people and a bunch of cameras, but Noah himself wasn't interested in seeing her bleed. She couldn't feel pain, but that didn't mean that it was easy for him to watch her get hurt.
Every single person present at the press conference had been searched, beforehand, Claire knew that. Edgar said he had to give them his knives. She almost wanted to lean to her left to ask Dr. Gibson for something sharp, when see noticed the glass of water on the table before her.
Claire didn't hesitate. She took the glass in her right hand, drank the content as fast as she could and looked around. How the hell am I going to break this? Shit, I should have thought about this. She saw Edgar standing in the corner. "Edgar," she half said, half whispered.
Edgar seemed uncertain of what he was supposed to do at first, but eventually strode towards the table. "Yeah?"
She held out the glass. "Can you break this for me?"
"Why would I brea-," he cleared his throat, probably realizing that they were being watched by a lot of people. It was probably not the best time or place to start asking questions. "Yeah, sure." With his ability Edgar rushed out of the door and into the hallway.
Claire bit her lip as she looked back at the audience. Their silence was nerve-wrecking. She herself had not spoken a single word, no explanation at all of what she was about to do. But before she knew it, Edgar was already back. He gave her a shard of glass and rushed back to his spot in the corner of the room. He looked up and let his eyes roam through the room. Every single person was staring at him as if they had seen a ghost. Edgar smirked and leaned back against the wall.
Claire couldn't help but smile at Edgar's attitude. He made everything seem so simple. "I should warn you," she said out loud, "this isn't going to look very pretty." She held the sharp end of the shard on her forearm, just above her wrist, and was about to press down when she realized it was probably better to do it while standing. If she was going to do this, she had to do it right. And so she stood and took another deep breath. Time for my own private freak show. She pushed the shard through her skin and into her flesh, drawing a straight line across her forearm, towards her elbow. She was careful not to push too deep. Just deep enough to create a thin line of blood. That was all. Just a little bit of blood to prove that what she had done wasn't fake. It was not an act. No cry for attention. It was nothing more but an attempt to finally tell the truth.
Claire looked up. Everyone was staring at her arm, which had already healed. She suddenly became very aware of all the cameras in the room. It wasn't just this group of people she was going to talk to. The whole world was going to hear what she had to say. People who actually knew her, people she had been friends with in high school, her classmates from college, they were all going to find out about her.
Claire sat down again. She knew she had to finish what she had started. Showing her ability had given her more than enough courage to finally start talking. "As Dr. Gibson just told you, my name is Claire Bennet. I'm nineteen years old. My parents are Noah and Sandra Bennet and I have a little brother named Lyle." He's going to thank me later for making him the most popular guy in school. That, or he'll hate me forever...
Claire paused for a moment to have a better look at the people she was talking to. Some of the reporters and journalists had brought laptops and others were writing every word that came from her mouth down on paper. But then she recognized a woman sitting in the middle of the second row and recognized that face immediately. It was the FBI agent that had questioned her after everything that happened at Union Wells, years ago. What was her name? Agent Hans… Hanses… Hanson? Yeah, that's it.
What was I saying? "On the outside I am just a normal nineteen year-old girl, a college student. But what most people don't know is that I am, as some might say, special. Special in a way, you've only ever seen in movies or read about in comic books. Special as in... Being able to do something extraordinary. Like... being able to hear somebody's thoughts or being able to move objects only by using your mind." She suddenly realized how exciting it would be for people to find out that super powers were real. "It's not just fiction. Some people really have super powers. I'll gladly show you mine again if you don't believe me. It's called Spontaneous Regeneration."
Claire sighed and felt so relieved that the truth was finally out. It had been such a heavy weight to carry around for so long, pretending to be someone she wasn't and lying her way out of difficult situations over and over again. That weight was finally gone. She never had to lie about herself ever again.
Noah was so proud of his daughter. It took a lot of courage for her to tell the world that she was special and that there were others like her out there. He was extremely proud, but he was also starting to get a little worried. What if they wouldn't leave her alone anymore? Would she still be able to live her life as normally as before? He didn't know what the world had in store for his daughter, but there was one thing he did know. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure that no one was ever going to hurt her. Ability or no ability, she still had feelings and that meant that there were still ways of hurting her.
"Claire," Dr. Gibson said, "could you tell us how it all started? When did you first notice you had this... ability?"
Claire took a moment to think about her answer. She wasn't entirely sure when the first time had been. It was possible that the Haitian had erased her earliest memories. "I guess the first time was when I was fifteen or sixteen years old. I fell through a glass closet door and I had to get to the hospital to get a piece of glass removed from my hand. When I removed the bandage, there was nothing. Not even a bruise. I was probably too naïve to think anything of it."
"Did you tell your parents?"
Dad already knew. "No, I thought that they would hate me if they ever found out. I started making video tapes of my suicide attempts instead. I figured I could show it to them when I was ready, but I never did." Claire noticed the looks people were giving her and she realized that talking about committing suicide with such nonchalance probably wasn't appreciated by most of them. She didn't do it on purpose. It was just something she had gotten used to after having died so many times. "They didn't work, obviously. I knew they wouldn't."
"When did they find out?"
Dr. Gibson kept asking questions and Claire was glad that she did, but she didn't know how to answer this one. "Um…" Mom found out when Ted tried to blow up our house. Dad on the other hand…
"I should probably answer this one," Noah said as he looked at both his daughter and Dr. Gibson. He had to answer that question, not Claire. He owed it to her. Keeping her ability secret for so long had been the right decision, he knew that. It was just that things between them were never the same again after she found out. This was his chance to make it up to her. "I didn't just find out about Claire," he said. "She never told me and I never asked. I didn't need to. See, I've always known that she was special."
Next chapter: Telepathy is a Bitch