Chapter 13: Approximate

Like she was anticipating, Claire found Sylar sitting in front of the toilet bowl, shaky and taking deep breaths to presumably stop the waves of nausea. "You didn't include this bit in the book," Claire scolded him while filling a glass with water for him.

"I didn't say it was...it was all inclusive," he took the glass from her, but set it down in front of him on the floor. "It's too early to drink anything, I'll just be sick again," he explained at her questioning look, "so sorry about your nice dinner going to waste."

"Oh, no need for apologies, I can see you're all peachy," Claire commented, "so why don't we get you into bed? Perhaps you should get some sleep."

"Yeah, that should do," he replied, concentrating. It was the moment he had been practicing his inner shapeshifting for, for when she had touched him and handled him. It was quite easy after he figured it out actually. Changing the fluid levels in his inner ears produced a good bit a vertigo, making him dizzy and nauseous at the same time, both being results that Claire could pick up upon. Couple that with directing less blood flow to his head and the girl would read him as quite faint, with the added advantage of looking reasonably sickly.

He must've been doing it all right, as after putting him to bed, Claire continued with bringing the glass of water over to the nightstand in case he needed it later and picking up a towel to wet it with warm water the same way she had been doing at the company cells sometimes.

Sylar had to cover a lot of uncharted territory in practice. He had to clench his insides, then constrict a little less when Claire was supposed to have a positive effect on his stomach with her moist piece of cloth. It was fine tuned shapeshifting that made him a little shaky as it usually did when he used that ability, but of course that only added to the effect.

The blond held the piece of material in place. Not as if bringing him a load of painkillers from the town pharmacy would help much. It had to be a lot before his body would register it. She felt his discomfort. His stomach was cramping nowhere near as bad as it had been at the company under direct influence of the formula, but it made him miserable nevertheless.

Encouraged by the effectiveness of the towel to alleviate his distress, she automatically started moving it in little circles, rubbing the upper part of his abdomen with it. Impressed by the attention she was giving him, Sylar immediately decided that the tummy massage was bound to be helping him and lessened the cramping to a level that was hardly noticeable, which in some ways, was harder to do, than definite shifting. On the one hand, there he was, enjoying what he wanted for so long, to be touched by her in an intimate and caring manner, but also having to use his least favorite ability to keep her going. He closed his eyes, feigning resting after her supposedly successful attempt to help him, but in fact sleep was the last thing he could have been doing. If he fell asleep and lost control of his shapeshifting even for a minute, Claire could add two and two together and figure out what was going on.

So when finally his hatred for his shifting power got to a certain level, he opened his eyes, "you should go back to sleep, little Claire. I'll be fine."

She let it slide right by her and was quickly ready with the answer, "no. We should talk," she walked to wet the towel again, then went back to what she was doing before, "your condition getting any better over the last few weeks?"

"Thanks a bunch for what you're doing for me. Really. Goodnight."

"What does that mean? Your stomach sore a lot?"

"No. Yes. Maybe?"

Claire stared at him for a moment, "that's like a yes if I've ever seen one. I'm contacting Rebel tomorrow morning to see if he can come up with anything," she moved to sit a bowl of warm water next to his bed.

"What...what on earth are you doing??" Sylar asked startled as the short woman was climbing onto his bed.

"I haven't slept all night. And just because I'm watching you, it doesn't mean I shouldn't catch some Z's.," she ascertained while settling herself a mere inch from him on the king sized bed so that she could still keep her palm rubbing his belly at least till she fell asleep. "Night."

He froze up a little. It meant it was him who would not get any rest that night. With her hand so securely on his stomach, he could not let the act drop for a moment, not even when she was fast asleep. She might feel the change. Keeping an ability constantly up for such a long time was certainly a challenge, but it should all pay off in the end. He moved an arm as if bye chance. It touched her hair this way, they almost looked like he had her in his arms. Feeling her warm breath on his side and inhaling her scent, Sylar was the happiest man on earth.

Tbc