(3) The Switch

(Lines in bold are taken from Season 1, Episode 23 'How To Stop An Exploding Man' season finale, not mine.)

Early afternoon, Sylar found himself in the middle of Manhattan at the hospital, looking for room 307. He only planned to stay a few minutes before disappearing forever. He knew Peter would have wanted him to help the one who had contacted him & he was also a bit curious as to who this person was. He was running through the list of girls he had slept with who were still alive (What? He didn't kill all of them!) in his head, wondering which one was waiting for him.

The door to the hospital room was closed but Sylar quietly slipped inside. He found one of the most gorgeous creatures he had ever laid eyes upon yet asleep in the bed, but it was someone he had never seen before. He stood next to the bed staring down at the short dark brown hair the color of chocolate. They were currently turned away from him, facing towards the window & the sun ray striking down nearly made one long slender arm resting over the cover glow.

He patted her their leg a couple times to wake them up. They stirred & moved their head to look up at him & Sylar could see a new but nearly healed, very deep, diagonal scar going across the face from top right of the forehead, skipping the bridge of the nose & narrowly missing the inner edge of the left eye, then reappeared just on the other side of the nose to continue down to the bottom left, stopping just above the corner of the mouth. It was still darkly discolored & had several stitches, but already healing along rather well.

"Gabriel!" The person sat right up unashamedly, letting the covers fall down & the top of the gown with it. Sylar tried but failed to not stare at those soft plump breasts hanging out. "About freaking time!" They went on, not caring. "I sent Emma the print out message two days ago. What took you so long?"

Sylar's eyes unwillingly snapped up to look into her own. "Um what?"

"Come on, Gabriel," the stranger went on. "I"m going to be discharged tomorrow but I don't really know where to go right now."

"Gabriel? Few people use my real name unless they want something from me or are a friend. Peter considered me a friend but he's dead."

"I'm right here," the stranger said & it ... was not a lie! "Now I really need some help."

"You're Peter?" Sylar wanted clarification.

"Yes."

Still not lying! "Uh you don't ... er ..." Sylar once more dragged his eyes away from the boobs. "Do this." Sylar put his hands on his own chest.

"Oh those," Peter looked down, still not bothering to cover up. "Whatever. I've flattened them before, I'll do it again."

"Peter?"

"What?" Peter replied waspishly as if daring him to try something.

"What ... what the ..." Sylar felt a laugh coming on. "What the hell happened to y ..." He doubled over at last. Sylar finally stood straight, one hand over mouth, stifling laughter. "Where's your other body?" The woman claiming to be Peter just glared at him. Sylar tried something else. "Look, clearly something happened that made you swap bodies with some girl. You've been through body swapping before. It's an ability of some sort."

"You could say that," Peter said. "But that isn't what happened this time. This is my body. My original one. You have Nathan's memories now. Use them!"

"Nathan's memories?" Sylar repeated. He took a moment to focus on those, then suddenly, his birth power flared up but without an urge to kill & he understood. He saw her at last, but through another lifetime forced into him by Matt Parkman. In Nathan's memories was a young girl but she began to change in her teen years. Her birth date was December 23rd, so her parents had named her Noella after the festive season. "You're not supposed to be here. How did this happen?"

"Claire's blood," Peter said. "I carried a vial of it around with me in case I needed it & a few days ago, I certainly did."

"That big accident?"

Peter nodded. "When the ambulances slammed into each other, I think I blacked out for a bit. When I came to, I was under a pile of rubble, bleeding out & everything was hot. There was a lot of fire & smoke. I knew they wouldn't find me in time & I would die. I took out the vial. It was broken & half of it was gone but I managed to inject the rest of it in me. It healed me enough to save me but since I was so damaged, the Regen in Claire's blood no longer discerned what I was born with compared to what I did to myself. It put me back together as Noella & didn't even heal me completely. So, this," he traced the scar down his face. "Is from a piece of my ambulance slashing past me."

Sylar sat down on the edge of the bed. "I thought you were dead."

"I'm supposed to be. I'm Noella again, but that's supposed to be my dead name."

"Peter," Sylar sighed tiredly.

Peter finally smiled. Sylar had used the proper name. "I know what you meant," Peter said. "But it is what it is. I have to start all over again. Why didn't you come sooner?"

Sylar looked at him. "I waited in your apartment for a few days. I searched both hospitals for Peter, even in the morgues. No one knew what happened to you. Emma put her note on my door, not yours, so I literally just got it today."

Peter rolled his eyes. "I gave her both your address as well as mine. I guess she thought you would just go home. It was the only way I could think of to reach you & you both blew it," he said, his voice still higher than what Sylar was used to. "Only my parents & my brother know I am transgender. Stuff like that was kept hush back then & when Nathan got into politics, I was already transitioned enough to appear as the guy I am, so it never came out."

"Why didn't you call your Mom?"

"All she wants to do is talk about helping Claire," Peter complained. "Also she wouldn't be too pleased with me if I ever got my famous scar & well, here it is. So I went to you. Since you have Nathan's memories, you would know what I am."

"What are you going to do now?"

"Well, you already helped me set up my hysterectomy a while ago, so that's coming up later," Peter said. "As for the rest of it, I already tried to get started on transitioning again, but I have to wait six weeks. They want me to fully recover from the accident first. I've already used Regen blood but still healing up almost a week later. That's how bad it was. A lot of people died that day."

"Here," Sylar offered a hand. "Take the Regen ability. It's constant, not a one shot like the blood & we can both walk out now."

"I don't want to lose Edgar's power."

"I can copy powers like you do," Sylar began. "I just can't seem to work them as well that way but I can take his speed, then you take my Regen & then take the speed back from me."

"Alright," Peter grabbed the killer's hand & they swapped powers. Sylar now had Edgar's speed forever since he could hold every power he came in contact with. The scar on Peter's face instantly lessened & it soon blended its color into the rest of the flesh, but it had already healed enough beforehand to take hold so the Regen ability could not fix it all.

Peter attempted to get out of bed on his own for the first time that week. He shoved back the covers as Sylar got up & moved away to make room. Peter proceeded to swing his legs out to stand but got caught in the gown that was already half off his body & he ended up lying flat on the floor. Sylar helped him up but the torn gown ripped right off. It was with great effort that Sylar kept his eyes on Peter's face, focusing on that long scar, in a pathetic attempt at ignoring the girl body Peter currently had.

Nonplussed, Peter kicked off the remnants, then turned & went to the closet for a new gown, his back towards Sylar. As he opened the cupboard door, Sylar sat back on the bed, trying not to watch. They had spent a lot of time alone together when they had been trapped in the nightmare realm & had seen each other plenty of times without problem as both had been guys then. He kept telling himself this was still Peter now, Nathan's little sister who had become his brother instead, not just some woman. But he could not tear his eyes off that feminine body & annoyingly, Sylar found that from behind, Peter looked about the same, except perhaps the hips being a bit rounder at the moment.

Regardless of the hips, Peter was alive & Sylar realized then that he had truly missed having him around. Instead of wanting to kill Peter every day & twice on Sunday, Sylar was becoming more protective of the medic ever since their time together in dreamland. Peter had been his first true friend in a long time.

"... Peter ..."

"Yeah?" Peter turned around, new robe in hand. Sylar couldn't help it & quickly glanced up & down, looking over the fair body. Completely naked. Peter noticed Sylar's roving eyes. "Oh come on! Claire is right. You are a pervert! Knock it off. It's me, Peter!"

"I know!" Sylar snarled through gritted teeth. "You just make one hell of a ... a ..." He tried not to say the word 'woman' but he silently admitted to himself that Peter's designated body at birth was rather attract—stop that! It's Peter freaking Petrelli!

Peter groaned as he looked down over himself. "I hate this body." He bent over as if looking at something between his legs. Straightening up a moment later, he muttered, "I like the clit on my girlfriends, not on me. It's way too small for my liking."

Sylar's eyes went wide for a moment. "Why are you always so inappropriate?"

Peter just grinned, putting the robe on. "There. Better?"

"Not really." Sylar muttered, his eyes drifting down to the cleavage for a moment before looking away. "Sorry. Can't help it. You prancing around all naked like that, right now. It's a bit hot in here."

"I thought you liked girls," Peter muttered. "I'm not really a girl, you know."

"I don't mind it with anyone, really," Sylar pointed out. They glared at each other for a moment. "Why don't you take the Shape-shifting power back so you can be Peter, again? Maybe you can just skip all that surgery."

"Shape-shifting requires a conscious effort though," Peter said. "Besides, I will lose it when I come in contact with another power."

"I suppose so," Sylar said.

"Now that the Regen ability has cured my injuries, I'll take Edgar's speed back," Peter said.

"Alright, touch me," Sylar said without thinking. Dead silence followed that comment for almost a minute as neither knew what to do with their faces. "Okay, this just got really weird!"

Peter finally managed to say, "That sounded a hell of a lot better in your head, didn't it?"

"Yup. It sure did!" Sylar replied. "Now let's get you out of here."

"I'll talk to the doctor about leaving now," Peter reached for the button.

Sylar waited for Peter to convince the physician to let him out but eventually, the doctor declared that Peter was fine; although, the doctor did not realize what was happening & so had used the female pronouns. Peter slightly rolled his eyes but said nothing. For now, he had bigger problems. He didn't have any spare clothes at the moment & had to wait in the room while Sylar went back to the apartment to get something for Peter to wear.

When Sylar had returned, Peter quickly tried to get dressed but one piece of clothing didn't fit him too well. He turned to Sylar while holding his shirt in one hand.

Sylar's eyes widened for a moment & he suddenly found the window very interesting. "Would you stop?" He muttered with a sheepish grin.

"What? Oh," Peter glanced down. "Forgot about these bags." He held up the shirt as he noticed Sylar trying not to grin. "Would YOU stop?"

"Peter, why didn't you put your shirt on?" Sylar finally managed to ask.

"It doesn't exactly fit right now," Peter pointed at the breasts. "Can I borrow your jacket?"

Sylar handed it over. Once Peter had covered himself, he followed Sylar outside. They went straight to Peter's apartment so he could find something of his own to wear. Peter went into the bedroom to find a larger shirt. He had kept several of Nathan's shirts & since his brother had been slightly taller than him, one of those should work better. Peter went back to the living room, wearing one of Nathan's casual shirts but with the four top buttons still undone.

"Nathan's fit better," Peter began. "But still a little snug up here. I don't have any bras."

Sylar went very still for a moment, looking the shirt over. "That's Nathan's?" He hadn't been anywhere near anything of Nathan's in over a year, besides Peter.

"Yeah, I kept a few of his things," Peter said.

Of course, Peter would keep something of Nathan's. They were brothers after all. Sylar forcefully pushed thoughts of Nathan's dying body aside as he said, "You don't really need bras."

"Yeah I do," Peter looked over himself again. "I mean look at these things. They're huge!"

Well, that comment certainly drove the scene of Nathan's murder right out of Sylar's head rather quickly. "I've seen bigger," Sylar tried to calm Peter's dysphoria down. Peter just groaned. Sylar went on hurriedly, "Okay, moving on. No you don't. That's a sexist contraption because us guys usually like to see girls shaped a certain way. I dated a couple girls back in high school who were against that & never used such things. They had no shame. Bit like you."

Peter sighed heavily before asking rhetorically, "Did these girls believe in the bleed free movement as well?"

"What?"

Peter gasped. "Oh no!"

"What?" Sylar tried again.

"My hysterectomy!" Peter disappeared into the bedroom. "I'm going to have to reschedule all that. They are expecting Peter, not Noella & I don't know how many people have caught on to Claire's exposure yet. I guess I will skip the bra thing for today."

"That's what I just said," Sylar said.

"Sure, Gabriel," Peter said a moment later. He eventually came out, fully dressed, the black leather pants & jacket, with Nathan's shirt underneath, the four top buttons still left open, held open in fact due to the bigger chest.

Sylar once more silently reminded himself this was Peter, de-transitioned but still Peter, but a stray thought or two of pulling that body into bed with him still trotted across his mind. He handed over the landline phone. "You should call your mother now. She must be so worried about you."

"I doubt it," Peter shrugged. "She probably saw all this in her visions." Nevertheless, at Sylar's insistence, he took the phone & called Angela.

"It's about time you called," Angela answered immediately. "What are you doing here?"

"Figured you'd see me in vision," Peter complained.

"How long do you plan on staying & when am I getting my son back?" Angela demanded. "How are you even here?"

"You heard about that big accident a few days ago? I was at the bottom of it. I had a vial of Claire's blood but I was barely alive. It put me back together the way I was born."

"You have your scar too, now I suppose?" Angela added, slightly snippity.

"Well, uh, yeah," Peter said. "I was caught under my ambulance. It nearly cut me in half. A piece of it almost took my face off."

"So you are getting your precious timeline then," Angela said.

"I don't know, Mom & I don't care right now," Peter finally snapped. "I just want to get back to being Peter. I'm going to talk to the doctor down in Texas."

"Did you just say Texas?" Sylar looked up in surprise.

"I'm thinking I can restart the transition six weeks from now," Peter went on. After a long pause, he said, "No Mom. I can get money for—Mom!"

"Oh sure," Angela was saying. "You'll take a loan & pay it back double with the interest but you won't let your mother take care of you. Why did I raise such independent boys?"

Peter was always one to give out charity, but never one to take it back. He finally got a word in over the phone. "I can use Bob Bishop's power, now."

"That means you're with Sylar," Angela wasn't fooled.

"I told you, I'm going to take care of things," Peter said. "Right now, I need to get back to being a guy. Sylar knows I'm transgender. He's fine with it."

"Like how he is fine in killing your brother," Angela snapped.

Peter groaned long & loud. "I'm working on that. I gotta go," he grumbled, hanging up on her.

As soon as Peter hung up, Sylar said, "I'll help pay for everything."

Peter put the phone back on to the receiver. "It's a lot more than the hysterectomy. I have to start right over from the beginning."

"Peter, we can both use Bob Bishop's power since I have it," Sylar began, taking hold of Peter's hands. "Since we are friends now, let me help you. Isn't this what we are supposed to do? Keep me occupied so I won't go back to killing, again?"

"For now," Peter slipped his hands upwards onto Sylar's shoulders. He looked sideways out the window for a moment, briefly thinking of that person that didn't exist yet. "It will get so much better soon." He looked back at Sylar & found him rather close. Peter took a step back, letting his hands fall as he moved away.

It took an unusual amount of effort to not catch Peter's hands as he pulled back. Sylar felt slightly hurt as he watched him move across the room, but didn't understand why & not understanding made him dangerous. He forcefully held his hands down by his sides. He didn't want Peter dead any more but his birth power was demanding knowledge. Sylar knew what would happen to Peter if he attempted to understand anything right now. He suddenly felt warm all over & felt his blood rush from one head, down to the other. Down, or was it up? Well something was wanting to get up.

This could not be happening! Sylar kept telling himself this was someone who was about to become a guy again for the second time. But more than that, even if he didn't deny these strange feelings right now, Sylar knew he had no right. This was someone he had put through hell, whose brother he had murdered in cold blood, whose mother he had threatened & even cut into, whose niece he had terrorized. Peter was someone he had tried more than once to kill & who had tried to kill him more than once in turn. Yet at the same time, this same person had somehow not only eventually forgiven him for everything, but also had some strange faith in him to turn his life around & find the man that existed before this ability manifested & turned him into a killer. Peter was called naive by many people & for the longest time, Sylar himself believed it. Sylar was like a dark chest of wonders, seen through the eyes of the one with pure heart. He felt unworthy, all of a sudden.

But Peter never changed, despite insults, threats or people walking away from him.

What held Peter so steadfastly by Sylar all of a sudden?

Peter glanced back at him & Sylar felt another hot rush just from that soft look, lips slightly lopsided due to being born with some paralysis in the mouth. The disability tugged on the bottom of the scar. "You okay?" Peter asked.

"I will be," Sylar answered, deciding then & there, he would never tell Peter about this day, this moment, when he realized he had other feelings now. He had committed atrocious horrors against the entire Petrelli family. He did not deserve Peter's friendship & certainly not anything more. "So what do you have to do to transition?"

"Start with the hormone therapy," Peter said. "Then it's under the knife several times for a while. The whole process can take a few years."

"Years?" Sylar repeated in surprise.

"Yep & the Regen won't help," Peter said. "I would fully heal & reject everything. It's like Claire donating both her kidneys, then doing it again since her ability would heal & replace them. I have to do this the long way or I'll never be a guy again."

"You're right," Sylar sighed. "So that means I have to start working at the hospital."

"Why?"

"You're not out," Sylar started. "No one knows you're transgender, not even Claire. They hired Peter Petrelli, not Noella Petrelli. Noella hasn't even existed in records since you got rid of all that. If you go back now, you'd have to admit that you're someone with abilities, Claire's blood & everything else you want to keep hidden. So I'll go as you until you can go back as yourself."

"Gabriel," Peter looked at the floor. He shook his head. "I'm not going to ask you to do that."

"You didn't have to."

"It might be good for you," Peter said slowly. "Keep you out of killing. Would you be comfortable with that? Saving people all the time?"

"Do we have a choice?"

"There's a lot of blood involved."

"I'm perfectly fine with blood, as you know," Sylar held up his hands for a moment. "I am the deadliest serial killer in the universe. Blood is nothing to me."

"I'm just thinking if you see it like that, would it make you go off?"

Sylar latched onto Peter by his force power & yanked the medic across the room to him. He grabbed his shoulders, holding him so that they were close once more. "You keep telling me that I won't. That somehow, I beat this thing."

"You do!"

"Then let's just go with that," Sylar said. "You focus on your transition. I'll hang on to your job for you until you're ready for it."

"Alright," Peter gave in. "We can do this. I know you'll be fine."

Sylar finally let him go. "So who will be my partner?"

"I could probably do that," Peter began. "Hesam died in the crash. I think they found a few charred remains to send back to Iran. So you'll need a partner. Ambulances have a bare minimum of two attendants. You still have that Imprinting ability?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Okay, I have an idea," Peter said. "I can give you copies of my employment papers there & you can Imprint it all onto new documents but using the name Noella. We can change a few things & say Noella is a transfer who will be working with Peter. You as me, in other words."

"Sounds good, let's start with that."

About an hour later, Sylar lay back on the couch, stretching his back for a moment, while a dozen papers lay half-stacked on the coffee table in front of them. "Now all we have to do is come up with what to do with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Noella is just a name tagged on to the female body you got born with," Sylar said. "But you're not exactly out. I know you're Peter, but no one else does besides your mother. So in public, should I use Noella?"

"Probably better that way for now, since you have to be me," Peter shrugged. "It's temporary at least."

"So now we just need to come up with a story about how you survived," Sylar said. "When I walk in there looking like you, they're going to ask questions."

"That's easy," Peter waved it away with one hand. "Just tell them I was thrown. Not far from the truth."

"You literally got thrown under the ambulance."

"I sure did!" Peter agreed. "By the way, do you know anything about ambulances? They aren't your regular vehicle to drive."

"I know exactly how to drive one," Sylar stated matter-of-factly.

"You do?"

"My power allows me to see into things & learn how they work," Sylar began. "I looked into an ambulance ... your ambulance ... a couple years ago. I was planning to mess with it to make you crash & kill you."

"Thanks," Peter groaned. "Had you no thought for my partners or patients?"

"That's kind of why I never went down that route," Sylar admitted. "But anyway, yes, I know exactly how to drive one. I can give your new one a quick look over, but I understand those vehicles just fine."

"You really can be insane, sometimes," Peter said. "You sure you want to do this?"

"You just get back to being Peter," Sylar replied. "I apologize in advance for having to use your dead name in public."

"It's ... it's fine," Peter shrugged it off. "It isn't a bad name. I don't exactly hate it. I mean, I was ... was born a couple days b-before ... Christmas. It's just ..." Despite his attempt at accepting his current situation, it was clear that he was still bothered by being stuck as a woman & having to use his dead name again until he could come out. His stutter had returned out of nerves. "It's ... the name is..."

"A girl's name," Sylar finished Peter's sentence. "What made you pick the name Peter?"

"The Saint," Peter said. "My whole family are Catholic & I was going to take a Saint's name anyway. Plus it keeps with the whole religious holiday idea of when I got born. So I went with Peter."

"You still practice, don't you?" Sylar began. "Isn't the reason you didn't come out as transgender because of that faith? You would have been ex-communicated."

"Yep, pretty much," Peter admitted. "We switched churches when I switched bodies. So no one in the new place knew what happened & I was able to go there as Peter. It's a small cathedral downtown where we all still go every week."

"You know, this isn't the 90's any more," Sylar said. "It's almost thirty years later. People are more woke. More accepting. I know more Christians today are fine with it. I always was until I went atheist. I mean, I'm still fine with transgender, but I always was. Maybe you can come out this time."

"I hope so," said Peter. "Right now, only my parents & Nathan knew. The only way you found out is when Nathan's memories got shoved into you."

"Peter, I will never hate you for being transgender," Sylar said. "I don't care about race or religion or sexuality or gender. I've always been very supportive of things like that."

"Thanks."

"I just hate you for existing," Sylar added with a grin.

"Thanks, Sylar," Peter complained, but felt himself smiling as well. "I hate you for existing, too."

"That's fine."

"Fine," Peter said. "Anything else you hate me for?"

"Well, I don't know 'dear'," Sylar went on in a mock tone, making air quotes with his fingers as he said the word dear. "Maybe for when you crucified me & shot a nail through my penis?"

"At least you have a penis I can shoot at. Mine would have to be rebuilt!" Peter snarled through gritted teeth; although, he looked about ready to burst out laughing.

"YOU DID NOT JUST GO THERE!" Sylar exclaimed, eyes wide in horror, not knowing how to retaliate after that one.

"I did. Ohh, I so did!"

"NO!" Sylar was still aghast. He groaned. "Why am I friends with you?"

"I don't know," Peter shook his head once, laughing at last.

"I really am going to kill you, now," Sylar said. "You know that, right?"

"What a sordid game we play," Peter teased, still laughing.

"We sure do," Sylar glared before going on. "First things first. We need to take care of that scar."

"I'll get some make up cover tomorrow," said Peter.

The next day, they went out to get some flesh tones of makeup to cover Peter's scar so that it would not appear on his face as Noella since Sylar would have to be showing it, instead. Once they returned to the apartment, both worked for over an hour to hide it. Then Peter fussed over Sylar's appearance so much that he nearly got killed. Sylar had Shape-shifted to look like Peter & managed to work in the deep facial scar as well but Peter wasn't satisfied until everything was perfect right down to the clothes Peter usually wore. Using the force power, Sylar finally swiped Peter aside & pinned him to the wall all the way across the room.

"Are you quite finished?"

"If they realize you're in fact not me, I'll be losing more than the job."

"I got it," Sylar snarled. "Let's go!" He headed out the door without even a backwards glance, letting Peter crash to the floor.

Dark Chest Of Wonders, by Nightwish