Chapter 9: Integrity

The agile, athletic build, brown haired woman who'd introduced herself as Rach to Claire before starting to glow and teleport both Sylar and Claire out the hospital room previously, set down the crate of multifruit juice, the last of the seven boxes that contained all the food that prisoner and prison guard would need for a whole month.

"Email Rebel if there's any problems," Rach smiled at her encouragingly before disappearing, "we could be here in seconds."

Claire opened the suitcase she initially took with herself to Livingston so that she could take up her post there, and hurriedly pulled a cardigan out. Although it was the middle of the summer, aided by the heat provided by the midnight sun, she could've bet that it wasn't any more than 5 Celsius degrees out there as she was standing next to the small compound situated about ten miles south of Barrow, Alaska, on the flat tundra stretching hundreds of miles in front of her. She'd better go inside and turn on the gas heater, the fuel supplied from some nearby gas field. Unpacking she would do later, there was plenty of time as she didn't figure it out yet what she was going to do with the massive amount of time all by herself, apart from hoping that the satellite dish will make her telly and the internet working as promised. All by herself, if she didn't count her captive.

A little apprehensive, she walked into the small room that she was assured was ability proofed for Sylar. It didn't look much different, than her bedroom, adjacent. The killer had been teleported from his hospital bed right onto the king size one in between a nightstand and a dresser of drawers with a telly on top. Claire briefly acknowledged the sizing of the bed, noting to herself that it'll accommodate Sylar's tall figure well. A closet and a single chair completed the furniture, but thankfully everything looked tidy and clean. And more importantly, even though the house was relatively small, both bedrooms had separate toilets and showers.

She stepped closer and realized that although he has been disconnected from the various wires and drips at the teleportation, the drain leading infected fluids out his belly was still peeking out from under the clean pajama top they changed him into at the health facility. Claire pulled it out disgusted and immediately deposited it into the lidded bin in the bathroom just to be confronted by the hole the tube left in his stomach, leaking blood. "Still way too much drugs in his system," she mumbled when she pulled out her hanky she never used for anything anyway and pressed it to the wound. More to keep the bedding clean, she told herself, than anything else, but if she had to admit the truth it was because she was worried it could take a while till he gained his abilities back.

The little blond gave an unconscious sigh of relief when she saw the handkerchief didn't get saturated with red, and when she peered under it she could finally see the edges of the gap in the skin starting to close over. She looked up. There was some color in his cheeks now and his whole body became more relaxed along with his deep, reinvigorating breathing.

Claire wanted to be there when he woke up, explain things, see his reaction, perhaps take a little credit for what she has done. She sat by him, not sure what to expect. After all, there will be only her and Sylar out there as far away from civilization as it could go.

It took him about half an hour to start stirring, groaning loudly. It meant he was getting stronger. When she went to the hospital he would not even be able to do that. Sylar's eyes opened very suddenly, but they looked around in confusion waiting for the blur in front of him to settle. It was very bright, he established, and that was the reason it was hard to see. He tried to sit up, but winced with the pain searing through him.

"You'd better keep still for the time being," a soft, kind voice said next to him, "as far as I gather from what I heard about them, the drugs could take hours to completely clear out your body. Nobody'll be able to shove any more into you here."

Disregarding his surroundings as the focus of his attention, Sylar's semi-wild, muzzy gaze searched for her eyes till he found them, only to see merely comfort and truthfulness staring back at him.

The killer lay back, a look of wonder passing over his face, "there is. There is some good in this world..."

"Perhaps," Claire shrugged, "but the problem could be there's not enough love and goodness in the world to permit us giving away any of it..."

"I can see you got tutored well and became more philosophical somewhere along the line."

"And much good that's gonna do to me! No more degree, no more college, I'm stuck here with you in the Arctic!"

"Have you kidnapped me by any chance?" Sylar took up an interest in where they were once again. He couldn't see much out the window, but there was a door, and it wasn't even shut. "What is this place?"

"Some tourist camp set up for those wishing to hunt for caribou on their normal habitat. The LAWR rented it out for us."

"Oh. It's cold," Sylar concluded idly, not specifying whether he meant it in Alaska or in the room. Perhaps he was still rather mono-syllabic.

"Yeah, I didn't have time to turn on the gas for the night. It's quite late actually," she gestured towards the sun, which however low on the sky, was pretty bright. She stepped out into the hall, "don't try anything. Or try, whatever. Once the inhibiting formula wears off, your abilities will work, but you won't be able to step out and cross beyond these walls. You are surrounded by a magnetic field, responding only to your DNA. Don't ask me how, a thirteen year old child prodigy did it, just by telling a generator what to do. Hope it makes sense..." She stepped out for a moment to indeed turn on the heat. "Sorry for the state of the place...no decoration, or much entertainment. I asked for magazines, we should get them soon," she stood in the doorway and blabbered on out of anxiety, omitting the little detail that they were fashion magazines and therefore not likely to peak Sylar's curiosity. "Well, I should unpack." Anticipating he should be back to his normal monstrous self pretty soon, she decided to leave him. Just because they were not at the company, it didn't mean she had to spend any more time with him.

Tbc