Hello fellow Sylaire fans! So here's chapter 12. Hope you like it! Thanks so so sooooo much for your continued support. The reviews have been so encouraging, you're the best.

Chapter 12

Encasing Claires hand in his Sylar teleported them from the dreary motel room, satisfied that he had made his point. He neglected to tell Claire that he didn't really have a clue where he was taking them. He just had to wish for a place and a year and hope that they materialized there. He would never mock Peter for his time travelling mishaps ever again...well not for a while at least.

In a flash they found themselves in a garden, it wasn't particularly grand but there was enough room for a slide and a sand pit. The lawn was a healthy green with the occasional dot of red or blue, upon closer inspection Claire realised that the dots were toy cars, left there by one not so careful owner. They stood behind a thick conifer tree at the far side of the garden so not to alert anyone to their presence.

"Mommy...Mommy...watch me!" a whirlwind of chocolate brown hair and golden skin charged out of the near by house, over to the slide and began to climb.

Brushing Claires blonde waves away from her ear Sylar whispered,"That's him". He couldn't see the look on her face but is was one of pure astonishment, her jaw was slack as she tried to comprehend the little boy only a few yards in front of her. "He's..." the simple power of speech escaped her, looking at the boy and back at Sylar and back to the boy again.

"Ours." Sylar finished her sentence for her. Claire raised her hand to rest on her chest as though to slow the beating there. "He's beautiful!" she exclaimed. Sylar was torn between looking Noah and admiring the euphoric look on his future wife's face when all of a sudden to his dismay Claire's expression changed to one of horror. There was a loud thud and the sound of a child's cry. Noah had lost his footing and fallen off of the slide. He turned back to look at Claire and she was gone. He had never seen her run so fast and boy had he seen her run. Any worries or reservations that he may have had about how Claire would take to their son were erased there and then. He watched in awe as Claire raced to Noah's side and scooped him up in to her arms and fussed over him in a way only mothers do.

"It's ok honey, susshhh" Claire cooed placing a kiss onto his forehead and checked him over for cuts and grazes. Miraculously there wasn't a mark on him. Noah rested his head on his Moms shoulder and began to calm down. She stood in the middle of the unfamiliar garden, immersed in the hug, tears threatening, overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. The moment was broken by Noah's gentle laughter over her shoulder, "Why's Dad hiding?" he asked in a impish voice.

Realising he had been totally sprung by his six year old son Sylar emerged from behind the tree, hands up in surrender,"Hey Buddy, you got me!". Wandering over to them he couldn't help but smile at the view.

"What?" Claire asked as he approached.

"Nothing." his eyes lingered on the child in her arms. He wanted to tell her that motherhood suited her and that they really ought to give Noah brothers and sisters but he opted for keeping his big mouth shut, settling for savouring the moment.

Claires attention was drawn to the near by French windows and more importantly the sound of a woman clearing her throat rather loudly behind them, as if trying to gain her attention. In no time at all Noah and Sylar were chattering away about Transformers or Xmen...boy stuff she surmised. Handing the little boy over to his father Claire decided to investigate the source of the sound. Stepping through the French windows, Claire felt a firm tap on her shoulder spinning around she was faced with the most bizarre sight of her life...herself.

"Hey! 2011 right?" Claires future self smiled to her warmly. Claire just stared back for a few moments dumbfounded,"Yeah...that's right" she confirmed, her voice came out a lot higher than she had meant it too. Luckily Claires future counterpart seemed less perturbed, "Pretty strange huh? Meeting your future son, and future self all in one day? Come with me, Noah shouldn't see us together. I don't fancy the task of explaining time travel to a six year old, even one as bright as mine. I've been expecting you actually. Gabe never was good at keeping a secret." Claire nodded, bemused by the situation as she was lead by the hand into a bright homely kitchen that overlooked the garden.

Claire sat mute watching her future self rush around the sun lit room making them tea. She some how looked older, not that she had aged but there was a maturity there that Claire knew she did not poses yet.

This had to go down as one of the most surreal things she had ever done, this maybe even topped waking up on a mortuary slab with her ribcage exposed. Sitting drinking tea with herself, her future self in her future kitchen. Bizarre. She knew she should talk, ask questions try and make use of this incredibly unique opportunity but her head was a mess, it was all she could do not to pass out. The older wiser Claire seemed better rehearsed in these kind of situations.

Resting her chin on the back of her hand, the older woman looked at her younger self with a sympathetic glow,"Hmm 2011...what a year that was. You're probably feeling quite conflicted right now."

"Not really, I hate him it's pretty simple actually." Claire took a sip of her tea and hoped that she sounded convincing.

Her statement was met with a sceptical look, "Ok you keep telling yourself that honey!"

This annoyed the younger girl, causing her to sit up straight and assert herself, "What's that supposed to mean? He's a monster for Gods sake!" she whined frustrated, realising that she was trying to convince herself as much as she was the woman in front of her. To her great irritation her future self didn't appear to be listening to her, instead she was gazing out of the window, Claire leaned over to check the view.

Sylar and Noah sat side by side fixing what looked to be Optimus Prime, who had been the real casualty in the recent slide falling incident. Realising that their repair attempt had been a success, Sylar raised his hand for Noah to give him a high five. Looking slyly at the look of adoration on Claires face her older self nudged her playfully,"Yeah, some monster huh?"

Claire merely huffed in response, unwilling to admit her true feelings, but unable to take her eyes of the pair in the garden. Noah looked just like a little version of his Dad, he hung on his every word and looked at him like he was his hero. And in turn Sylar seemed different around him, he was gentle and patient, a virtue that he'd never possessed even after the whole,"Trapped in Matt Parkmans head" thing. From this angle he didn't look like the boogie man of her teenage years, he looked like a Dad, and a good one at that.

Determined to push the issue future Claire continued, "So you're telling me you've not started noticing him more?"

Folding her arms Claire sat back in her chair like a sulking child, her defences well and truly up,"Pft! No!"

"So, you didn't find yourself practically drooling over him at Peter's birthday barbecue? You know when he tripped and spilled his beer all down him and had to take off his shirt? That had no effect on you at all huh?" she teased, grinning like a Cheshire cat, her green eyes shining with mischief.

Claire squirmed uncomfortable in her chair,"I don't know what you mean." she sighed unable to look her double in the face.

"CLAIRE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I AM YOU!I WAS THERE!" Future Claire pointed out, wondering if it would actually count as assault if she smacked her younger self up the side of the head. To her relief she noted the beginnings of a begrudged bashful smile creeping over the girls face.

"Ok, there was that once. He's took me by surprise though, I mean I wasn't expecting him to look like THAT!" she confessed, feeling her cheeks begin to burn.

"And that look he gives you, the goofy smile that gives you butterflies?"

An uncontrolled scoff escaped Claires mouth and she scrunched her eyes closed as though she had been caught out.

Looking utterly victorious her older self could not resist adding,"...don't be embarrassed, that look still gives me butterflies now, gets him away with all sorts!"

"Ok so he's hot, I admit it, he's gorgeous but ..." Claire bit her lip, pausing for time as she tried to piece together her argument.

"But what? Look what you're fighting against?" future Claire raised her hand gesturing in the direction of Sylar and Noah who now seemed to be engaged in a game of tag or something to that effect, either way Claire had noticed that Sylar kept letting Noah win.

Claire looked back at her older self, her eyes cloudy, she didn't know weather to laugh or cry, "I'm not ready."

Reaching out a comforting hand, future Claire tucked a stray strand of hair behind Claires ear,"That's ok, but when you are ready, just don't fight it. Just because you have all the time in the world, that doesn't mean you should waste it".