Title: Alive Again
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Just when Noah thought he could accept the truth, he discovers what a lie it was.
Spoilers: 3x12 and minor 3x16
Disclaimer: Heroes is not owned by me, but by Tim Kring. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.
Elle had been lying low, knowing the danger she would be in if the others knew Sylar had helped her fake her death. She too had heard of the other specials being rounded up, hunted and in some cases killed.
There was only one place she knew she would be safe, the only place she could turn to. She didn't know Pinehearst and Primatech were both gone, but it hardly mattered since that wasn't where she was headed.
Sandra was out, just as she had planned to be while Noah packed up the last of his things. Lyle was with her and Claire was who knew where.
It made it easier for Noah. He didn't need the fights today. He just wanted to get his things from the house he had worked so hard for and that Sandra was obviously going to get to keep.
He managed to finish in piece and while so lost in his thoughts of everything over the last month he hadn't even noticed he was being followed.
Elle had meant to talk to him at the house but from down the street she could see what he was doing. Packing, leaving some part of his old life behind. It was oddly comforting for her to see, it was nice to know she wasn't the only one looking to start over as best she could.
Noah stood up after the third knock. Whoever this was obviously wasn't going away. And if it was Nathan, so help him, biological father or his daughter or not he would know pain for coming to him now.
He couldn't have imagined the shock he was in for as he pulled open the door.
"Hi," Elle smiled. She didn't know whether to try to leap into his arms at the fact he would potentially be the only one happy to see her, or would at least tolerate her. That was good enough, admittedly. Or just cry from the shock before her. He was stunned, that could only be good, right?
"Elle? Sylar -"
"Faked my death," she broke in. "I've been trying to hide ever since, but I just couldn't take hiding from you anymore. I don't really want my old life back, but you're the closest thing I've had to a real friend."
Noah's head was spinning. This was so unlike her and yet he knew from experience what coming back from the dead could do to a person. Sylar had said that she was dead, yet here she stood just as he had remembered. Every blonde hair even perfectly in place.
"Are you gonna say anything?" she asked, growing more nervous by the moment. Would he turn her in? Shoot her? Tell her that he wished she had died?
Noah had kidded himself into believing he had moved beyond her death, that he had moved beyond her. But it had all been a lie. It had been as much of a lie as her death, he was beginning to realize. He needed her, he needed to keep her in his life.
"Come in," he told her finally.
"Bennet, there's something I need to ask you," she told him once he had closed the door after her. "Something I've never asked you before."
"I won't turn you over to them," came his immediate reply. He had saved her several times before, he wouldn't stop now.
"Thanks, but this is something else. Something more - Bennet, can you just kiss me?"
He couldn't believe what he had heard, but the pleading and forming tears in her blue eyes proved to him that he had heard right. Her request was almost too easy to grant. His marriage was over as it was and he couldn't remember the last time he had been so relieved to see her.
He held her as though he would never let go while his mouth plundered hers, their kiss fierce and all-consuming. There was nothing more either of them would need, they knew. They were both alive again, both trying to escape past demons and move on. And now, together, they knew that they not only could but would.
The End