"Finally!" Claire said as she and her dad walked out of the press room. "I thought that was gonna last forever." They had been talking about Sylar for a very long time. She stretched her neck and her arms a bit, because they'd gotten stiff from sitting still the entire time. "Ugh, even talking about him makes my skin crawl." She didn't tell them about the time he took her ability, because that would've been way too disgusting. They did, however, tell them how he took all those other abilities, so it wouldn't be too hard to figure out what he did to her.

"Tell me about it," Noah agreed. "Talking about Sylar has always left a bad taste in my mouth." He told them everything. It had felt so good to finally expose Sylar's secrets to the world and make him the now most wanted criminal on the planet. We don't know how many people he's killed and we'll probably never know, he told them. Catching this man won't be easy, but it'll be a lot easier now that everybody knows who he is. All serial killers should get what's coming to them, especially those who murdered without remorse and without any regrets at all. People like Sylar.

"Dad…"

"Yeah?"

"Can you please tell me what happened?" He had told them everything about Sylar. He even mentioned Peter, because he was in that video. The one that everyone kept talking about. Claire had hoped he would tell them about what happened at the carnival, but he didn't and she couldn't wait any longer to find out. She wanted to know exactly what happened before her dad shot Sylar and what happened after.

Noah looked at Claire, uncertain. She wasn't going to like what he was about to tell her. "From the beginning?"

Claire nodded her head. "What were they doing at the carnival? What, they just happened to bump into each other?" He said that Sylar threatened to kill Peter. Nothing made sense and she hated being the only one who had no clue of what had happened.

"Okay, from the beginning. I called Lauren to get me a gun and a syringe, just in case. I only wanted to ask Peter to come with me, but Sylar was there, so I couldn't take the risk."

Yeah, right… He wants Sylar dead almost as much as me, Claire thought, but she didn't interrupt him.

"When I approached them, Peter became very defensive. He started talking about Sylar saving lives. He said that Sylar was the reason why everyone got away."

"What? That's ridiculous!" That man wasn't capable of doing such a good deed. "Everyone got away, because of Hiro and Ando. We saw it with our own eyes." Or is he talking about the crowd?

"That's what I thought, but Peter wanted to explain everything to me, so I let him."

"And?"

That was something, Noah couldn't quite put his finger on himself. "Peter was really vague about it, but he said that he had had a precognitive dream about what was going to happen tonight and that Sylar was going to be the hero." Sounds more like a nightmare to me. Any dream with Sylar in it could be considered a nightmare. "He went looking for Sylar and found him at Matt Parkman's place, trapped in his own mind. Then he told me that he had rescued Sylar from whatever telepathic world Matt had put him in and brought him to the carnival."

That does sound vague. "Do you believe him?" she asked.

"It's possible that Sylar helped, but Peter also tried to convince me that Sylar is now a changed man and I don't believe that for a second. He might have saved thousands of lives today, he may save millions of lives tomorrow, but people don't change, Claire. Certainly not him. He will always be a killer." And there's only one way to get rid of that killer...

"What did Sylar say?"

"Not much. He just wanted to get away from the carnival as soon as possible, but Peter was determined to prove to me that Sylar had changed." Peter should have listened to him.

"So why did you shoot him?" I have to see that video… "Was it because he threatened to kill Peter?"

"Yes," Noah lied. He didn't want Claire to know that Sylar actually saved Peter. That if it wasn't for Sylar, Peter would have been shot instead of him. She would blame him for almost killing her uncle and if she found out that it was true (which is was), she would never forgive him. "He attacked Peter and that's when I shot him." He felt terrible for having to lie to Claire. He had promised her so many times that he would stop, to put an end to all the secrets, but if having to lie to her meant that she wouldn't turn her back on him then so be it. He needed her in his life, more than she needed him these days.

"Sylar attacked Peter after he tried to convince you that Sylar had changed? That doesn't make any sense." He attacked Peter… "Was he going to take his ability?"

"Who knows? Maybe he just wants to get rid of every single Petrelli."

"But why Peter?" Sylar probably had a lot of reasons to hate the Petrellis. Angela had lied to him about being his mother, Arthur did the same and Nathan... Well… I suppose Sylar didn't agree with the whole Building 26 operation, either. But all Peter ever did was saving the cheerleader. If it wasn't because of his ability, then why did Sylar want him dead?

"I don't know, Claire, maybe they were trying to kill each other."

Okay, that does make sense. Peter had a very good reason for wanting to kill Sylar, but somehow, Claire had a feeling that her dad was leaving something out. "So, what happened then? Where are they now?"

"I think Peter took flight from Sylar and fled. Sylar went after him I suppose."

Oh, god. I need to know if he's okay.

"Oh, and I'm not going back into the press room with you, Claire."

"What? Why?" He had told her that he would be there. He even offered to answer some of their questions and that's what they were going to do after the break. She couldn't answer them all by herself.

"I have to find out where they've taken Samuel," and where Sylar is hiding, "but don't worry, Claire. I'll be there to take you home, after you've finished."

He's going after Sylar. She wasn't going to let him fool her twice. She knew that he wasn't going to let this thing with Sylar rest. He was willing to abandon her here at the press conference, to go after him. He's always leaving, when I need him most. "Home?"

"You can stay at my place for a while, if you want."

"I'll think about it," she said as she smiled at him. "Can I use your phone? Mine's got water damage."

"So does mine, but I've always got a backup." Noah looked at his daughter suspiciously. "I already tried to call him, Claire. His phone's turned off."

How does he always know what I'm gonna do? "I don't want to call Peter."

"You don't?" She's hiding something. He knew that look on her face too well.

"No, I…" come on, think of something… "I want to call Gretchen."

"Gretchen?"

"Yes, I could really use a friend right now."

"Of course." He handed her his phone. "I'll see if I can find us something to drink. I need to wash the bad taste away." He would eventually find out what Claire wasn't telling him and in the meanwhile he'd let her believe he wasn't suspecting anything. Like always.

"Thanks," she said. Yes. Great. Take as long as you need. Claire waited a few seconds, until her dad was far away enough and started searching in his contact list. Please have his number, please have his number, please... Yes! Right after 'Petrelli, Angela', 'Petrelli, Mansion' and 'Petrelli, Nathan' came 'Petrelli, Peter'. He forgot to remove Nathan's number. She wasn't going to call Peter at that moment. Her dad could hear her and she wasn't going to take that risk. She probably wouldn't be able to reach Peter anyway, if what her dad said was true and Peter's phone was indeed turned off. I could try to memorize it for later… She still had the press conference to go back to. I've got to write this down…

She scrolled up to find that 'Berg, Gretchen' was on his list of contacts as well and called the number. That explains how he asked her to come to have that thanksgiving dinner with us. It didn't even bother her. There might have been a time when she would've said something about it to him, maybe start a fight, but not anymore. He kept secrets from her and she kept secrets from him. She had accepted that a long time ago.

Then it dawned on Claire that Gretchen probably wouldn't answer her phone. It was late, almost past midnight.

"Gretchen Berg."

Thank god. "Hey, Gretch. It's me Claire."

"Claire? Hey!"

"Hey. Listen I don't have much time. Could you get pen and paper?"

"I've seen it on TV, Claire. Everyone here has."

Claire wasn't surprised to hear that, it was to be expected. "I really need you to write something down for me, before I forget."

"Got it."

As Claire told her the numbers (Gretchen repeating every number to make sure she had heard it right), she saw her dad coming back to her. "... three and five." She had to change the subject, because her dad was no longer out of earshot. "So, you've seen me?"

"Yes, that's what I just told you. Claire, what's the number for?"

"Did I do alright?"

Gretchen began to understand what was going on. "Was someone not supposed to hear that?"

"Yep," she answered as her dad handed her a cup of coffee. "That's true. It was terrifying at first."

"Okay, got it. Is it over, the press conference?"

"No, I'm going back in there in about ten minutes."

"Okay, good luck. I'll talk to you later."

"Thanks. Bye." She hung up the phone and handed it back to her dad.

"I assume she's been watching," Noah said as he took a sip from his coffee.

"Well, apparently everyone at the university has seen and recognised me."

"How do you feel about that?"

Claire shrugged. "I knew it would happen. I mean, I was on television. Everyone will probably recognise me from now on."

Noah smiled at his daughter faintly. "I'll make sure that none of them will bother you."

Claire sighed. "Dad, you can't always protect me."

Says who? "I can and I will."

Doctor Gibson interrupted them. "We're about to start. Are you coming?" She asked both of them.

"I'm not going back in there," Noah said.

She frowned at Noah. "May I ask why?"

"I've got to take care of a few things."

"Oh, well..." she said with a sigh. "I guess Edgar can have your seat then."

Edgar? Noah guessed it made sense. Edgar knew a lot of people with many different abilities.

"Are you coming, Claire?"

Claire looked at her dad. "Are you sure you're not coming with me?" Please, change your mind. She didn't need him, not really, but she just knew that they would ask her something she couldn't answer herself.

"Claire, you can do this. Doctor Gibson will be there to help you if you don't know what to say and Edgar will be there as well." He felt terrible for having to leave her. He always did, but this was too important.

"I guess I'll see later then," Claire said, disappointment written all over her face.

"Good luck," Noah said as he kissed Claire on the top of her head. "I'll be waiting here for you."

She smiled at him and went to talk to Edgar. Doctor Gibson however, stayed where she was. "Noah, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Of course," he answered.

"That man, you and Claire were talking about…"

"Sylar. Yes?"

"I questioned him a little while ago in Baltimore. My colleague found him wandering the streets, covered in blood and bullet holes."

Noah frowned at the police psychologist. "Are you sure that it was Sylar?"

"Yes. One hundred percent."

I wonder what that was like… "He didn't hurt you?"

"No, but I didn't know that he used to be a serial killer until they found a match with his fingerprints."

Used to be? "Sorry, but he still is a serial killer. He will always be one."

"That may be, but he couldn't remember what he was at the time. He couldn't remember anything, for that matter. I thought that maybe, he had been in a car accident. He could've had a concussion. I didn't know anything until I questioned him. That's when I found out that something else was going on."

"Like what?" That's when she found out that he's a psychopath.

"It was quite remarkable. He told me that my watch and the clock in the interrogation room weren't running in time. My watch was running too fast according to him."

Ah, here we go. That ability was the cause of everything Sylar had done in the past. That and his own twisted mind. "It's his original ability, the one he was born with. It's called intuitive aptitude and it makes him understand how things work, especially clocks and watches. He used to be a watchmaker."

"Yes, I've seen his criminal record. So he became a watchmaker, because he had an ability?"

"No. He was a watchmaker first, then discovered his ability." Doctor Gibson clearly had to get a bit more used to all these abilities. That was obvious. "You said that he couldn't remember who he was." It sounded like Sylar was pretending. If there was one person who knew everything about Sylar's little twisted mind games it was Noah, and this was undoubtedly one of them. "Did you believe him?"

"Yes. Without a doubt."

"So, what happened. How did he get away?" I hope he didn't kill anyone in the progress.

"He escaped the police station and found me in my car. He wanted my help."

Help? Sylar doesn't need help. "Help him escape?"

"No, he wanted me to help him remember who he was."

"So, what did you do?"

"I told him to take my car and find out for himself, but before he could go anywhere my colleague Captain Lubbock, found him. Then everything happened so fast. There was electricity, Sylar got shot, but he healed, I told him to run and then he disappeared. I haven't seen him since."

Okay… Doctor Gibson had met a soft, confused and disoriented version of Sylar, but Sylar seemed to be himself when Noah saw him earlier. "I can assure you, Doctor Gibson, that Sylar has his memories back." He wondered all of a sudden why Doctor Gibson hasn't said anything about Sylar during the press conference. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Call me Madeline, that's easier. I thought it was better to wait until I could tell you personally."

"You did the right thing. I would like to ask you to keep this to yourself."

She frowned at him. "Why would I do that?"

"Your story about Sylar not remembering who he was, makes him sound weak. Sylar is not weak. He's a killer. He will do anything, use anything to get what he wants. You've met a man who didn't know who he was, who might have thought he was someone else, but that's no longer the case." He's a danger to us all.

"I'll have to disagree with you on that, but we'll talk about it some more, later. I have to go back now." She nodded at him and went to Claire and Edgar.

Noah watched as the three of them went back in to the press room. Disagree with what? She didn't believe him. What was there not to believe? Peter didn't say anything about memory loss or confusion and neither did Sylar. The man knew who he was, maybe thought that he had changed, but knew that he was Sylar.

Noah was about to walk away when a woman from the hotel approached him. "Mr. Bennet?"

"Yes?"

"There is a phone call for you."

"For me? Who is it?"

"He wouldn't tell me his name."

Okay… The woman led him to the reception and handed him the phone. "This is Bennet."

"Yes, Bennet. This is Matt, Matt Parkman."

"Parkman, what's going on?"

"He was here. Sylar was here."

Next chapter: An Old Acquaintance