Title: Forget Me Not

Author: Bunny

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise this would've really happened.

Summary: Set around Shadowboxing; Claire discovers an amnesiac Sylar wandering around and takes it upon herself to help him.

A/N: Just to let you guys know it's probably going to be an extra week before I update again. I am not going to be home for several days and I'm going to want to tweak the next chappie a bit before posting.

No matter where I put my head, I'll wake up feeling sound again
Breathe, it's all you can
Tomorrow smells of less decay, the flowers greet this bloomin' fray
Be thankful, that's all you can

~ Float; Flogging Molly

Chapter 4

Claire rolled to her side opening one eye to see that it was nearly 2pm. She fully expected to see another person in her bed when she rolled the other way, but sat up with her elbows when she saw no one there; momentarily thinking she had dreamed the entire thing. Laying a hand over the other side, the mattress still felt warm and the covers were messed. Wondering where Sylar went, she got up and padded to the living room to look for him. She did a double take when she reached the kitchen as she saw Sylar fixing breakfast. "You can cook?"

His lip quirked up as he turned over a frying egg. "Apparently I am going to have fun discovering my many hidden talents." Claire placed her arms behind her and leaned against the counter behind him, tilting her head thoughtfully at his active domestic side. The strangeness of the situation once again was not lost on her. He appeared so normal and docile, but a little portion in the back of her brain was acutely aware of where he was. "So what other abilities do I have?"

As Sylar put forth the question he took a quick step towards her resulting in Claire giving a small jump to the side. Her abrupt action stopped him for a moment and with an eyebrow rise he resumed grabbing the two plates that were on the counter she had been standing in front of. Smiling nervously at her unexpected reaction, she ran her hand through her hair before answering. "Electricity, telekinesis, shape shifting, weird sort of human puppetry…" Sylar gave an odd look to the last one as he handed her a plate with an egg. "You have others, but those are the ones I've been on the direct end of."

The pair settled down where they had the night before at the table to eat. "Do you know how I can make them work?" asked Sylar, highly interested.

Swallowing down a bite that suddenly became thick, Claire shook her head glad she didn't know the answer. "I'm not really sure…"

At the same time they both reached for the salt. Their fingertips touched briefly and the blonde's hand snapped back to her side. He left the salt where it was as his face read confusion. This Sylar's emotions being an open book were an odd change. "What did I do to you?"

Claire shook her head and resumed eating. "Not now." He nodded slowly and also began to eat. Once finished, she picked up her plate. "I think I'm going to visit my dad today, see if he knows anything about your amnesia." Claire sighed as she stood to go get dressed, "Because as much as it pains me to say this, he probably does know."

As she walked by Sylar, he took hold of her arm. "Can I come with you?"

Frozen momentarily by his touch, with a tight grin she jerkily slipped her arm away. "That's really not a good idea. My reaction of stabbing you would be tame in comparison to what he would do."

X~ X~ X~

"Claire," greeted a surprised Noah enveloping his daughter in a hug.

"Hi, Dad," she responded with an equally tight hug before entering his apartment.

Closing the door Noah turned to address her. "Showing up here, no phone call ahead of time, would usually lead a father to believe something bad had happened."

"What? No," she assured, back purposely towards him so she wouldn't have to meet his eyes. "Can't a girl just drop in to say hi to her dad?" Flopping down on the couch with a sigh, Claire gave a bright smile.

Settling down on the other side, Noah inquired, "How is the apartment working?"

"Great!" she exclaimed. "All my stuff is nearly moved in though my TV is broken, but that should get fixed this week. The neighbor's are all really friendly, a lot of them gave me house warming presents." Taking advantage of the conversation she made, Claire took a breath before adding, "Actually, even Angela stopped by with one."

Noah's eyes lifted with evident surprise. "That was nice of her."

"Yeah, yeah it was," she agreed. Fidgeting with a ring on her thumb, she hesitated, slightly unsure of how to proceed. "While she was over she said some things…" The furrow on his brow instantly indicated he would not be happy no matter what she said. "Some things about Sylar."

Groaning Noah removed his glasses to rub his eyes. "Claire, Sylar is gone. You know this; we all stood there and saw his body fade away to nothing."

"Yeah, but what if he regenerated anyway? His body reassembled bit by bit and he is wandering around with some sort of mental trauma or vendetta –"

"Claire –"

"Or he could still be piecing himself back together slowly –"

"Claire –"

She gasped as another idea hit her, "Or he could have shaped shifted and the body that burned was a double –"

"Claire!" yelled her father, gripping her shoulder. "That man is not your concern anymore." The young blonde stifled a laugh and somehow maintained a serious face through that comment. "You do not need to worry because he is gone for good and is never coming back. Alright?"

She weakly returned the hopeful smile he offered with a brief nod knowing he would say no more on the subject.

X~ X~ X~

A few hours later, Claire out of the cab at her apartment and whipped out her mobile phone to dial a number; one she should do so more often, she thought off handedly. Putting the phone to her ear fully expected to hear the answering machine message of Nathan Petrelli. There had been that brief time at the Stanton while she and Peter had been missing from the action with Sylar. Nathan had been in the hotel room when they returned, maybe he knew something.

What she did not expect was an automated voice informing her Nathan's voice mailbox was full. Clicking the end button, Claire frowned as she opened the front door to her building. For Nathan in general, but especially as a senator, to have his phone full of messages was not normal. Once inside she dialed a different number and began to walk up the stairs.

"Peter, hey!"

"Claire, what's up?"

"Have you heard from Nathan recently? I tried calling him and I can't even leave a message."

"Is everything alright?" Claire could almost see him flipping his hair back with worry.

"Yeah," she lied, "I just was wanting to talk with him, but he hasn't emptied his voicemail."

There was a pause of silence from the other end as she reached her door. "Nathan has been behaving oddly for a few weeks, but I haven't talked to him in well over a week."

"Could you find out for me? It's kind of important."

"I thought you said everything was alright."

"Peter," she interjected entering her apartment, "everything is fine. I just really need to speak with Nathan. Can you look into it for me?"

"Sure," he assured. "Once I find him I'll tell him to call."

"I appreciate it Peter." Hanging up she closed the door and tossed her purse onto the table. "Well, my dad was definitely lying," announced Claire. Slipping off her shoes she pushed her toes into the soft carpet. "My dad knows you're still around, probably even what happened to you, but he's not going to share openly." Her guest sat up into view as he had been lying on the couch reading. Her attention was drawn past him as she pointed to the television against the wall. "You got that working?"

"Yeah," Sylar replied sounding sheepish. "You sounded like you would be gone most of the day so I decided to have a look." He got up and turned the television to show the back panel was still removed. "It was easy to get it working, like I knew exactly where the wires and chips were supposed to go. Just the back…won't go back on…"

"Meaning you broke it," she clarified. Claire couldn't help the lip quirk at his guilty silence. She laughed as she moved to sit on her sofa. The open textbooks on the table caught her eye. "You seriously read my ochem and psychology texts?"

He shrugged with one shoulder. "You don't have other options here."

"Tell you what, when I am on campus tomorrow, I'll be sure to pick you up a few books from the library." With a foot she flipped them closed, "I can barely stand reading them, not sure how you willingly could."

He smiled the smile that Claire had already grown used to while he came back to the sofa. Once settled in a relaxed position he asked, "Do you think your dad would be willing to help me?"

Claire snorted, "Not likely." Crossing her legs on the cushion to get more comfortable, she continued. "The scenario he reacted strongest to was that it was a body double we burned at Coyote Sands. Meaning that you have probably been walking around shifted into another person's form." She searched his face for any recognition. "Does that sound right at all?"

Sylar closed his eyes tightly in an attempt to remember. "The first thing I really remember was crawling out of the ground, but that was only a few days ago. So anything before that is possible I suppose."

"I got it," she announced, a serious expression set on her face. His attention was pointed all on her, anticipating whatever she said next. "Alien abduction."

A pause filled the air for a moment before Sylar laughed out right. His abrupt reaction caused her to emit a giggle. "I think you found the answer."

Settling into a lull in conversation, both focused on the formulaic cop drama which had replaced a great cancelled show on the television. After a few moments of quiet, out of the corner of Claire's eye she noticed Sylar's hand coming towards her head. Just as it was about to come into contact with her head she jerked back and away from him.

Frowning, Sylar gestured to her head, "You've got a leaf in your hair." Claire used her own hand to try and pick it out, but kept missing. He leaned in again, "If you'd just let me –"

"I got it," she interrupted, standing up. She rushed towards the bathroom so she could check her problem in the mirror. Picking through the strands of yellow, she finally found the leaf and tossed it in the trashcan. Turning to the door she gave a little yell of surprise when she saw Sylar blocking the door jam with crossed arms.

"What did I do to you?" asked Sylar quietly, keeping his arms crossed. "You always flinch away whenever I move to touch you, even if just for the littlest thing."

"I do not," Claire replied indignantly. She slid past him, with as little contact as possible, before going into her bedroom. He followed her in as she shifted through her closet, not necessarily looking for anything particular, just trying to avoid the conversation at hand.

"To just get your attention? To reach past you for some plates? For salt? A leaf?" he listed. Claire felt him stepping closer, but stopping just outside of reaching distance. "You're the only person I feel that I really know through all of this. I trust you, Claire. But why don't you trust me?"

His heart felt honesty confused Claire in ways she couldn't even begin to express and made her feel guilty; which in turn added to her confusion. Rubbing her forehead with one hand she stated, "Look, I am tired. I promise we'll talk about this tomorrow –"

"You promised today," he insisted with a slight growl.

Claire whirled around slamming the closet door. "Yeah, I did. And now I don't want to." She pointed emphatically to the door leading to her bedroom. "I said I am tired, I want to go to bed." With a quick after thought, she added. "Alone."

Sylar's head lowered and a dark expression covered his face. It wasn't the old psycho killer darkness, just the darkness of a man who was sick of being put aside; and that was the only reason Claire hadn't shifted to full panic mode. He held one hand up before folding the fingers quickly to the palm, shutting the door to the rest of the apartment. He stalked towards her and her fists tightened. In three long strides he hovered in her personal space, head tilted in so she had nowhere to look but at him. Claire inhaled deeply to steady her rapidly beating heart. "Tell me." Though his posture would be deemed threatening, the vocal tone of his request was kind. And for some reason that just lit an incredible anger inside of Claire.

"Fine," she spat out, tossing the clothes onto her bed. "You're a psychopath. In your blind greed to get my power for your collection you brutally murdered one of my classmates. You stalked me for months before attacking me in my own home, and after you ripped my scalp off you laid me out on the coffee table in order to poke around in my brain. And afterwards, you left. Just left me alone. And I was forced to deal with the remaining fear, paranoia, and the fact you took away the one sensation that made me still feel human."

Sylar backed away looking sick as he stumbled to the window, death gripping the sill. Though she knew this Sylar could not be blamed for the actions of the past, Claire felt a jab of satisfaction upon his reaction.

"I'm not finished," shouted Claire, following him closely behind. "You trapped my family in a building then you allowed me to choose who was to die; my dad, my birth mom, or my grandmother. You proceeded to slaughter nearly everyone else there before murdering my mom. A couple of months later you killed your way up to nearly taking over the Presidency, but before that went through you kidnapped me and tried a sicko seduction to force me to become your 'first First Lady'. So forgive me for being a little jumpy."

After her tirade she breathed heavily from the emotional outpouring of anger. Sylar's shoulders remained tense for a few more silent moments before turning around. "I did all these terrible things, ruined lives, not just for you, but plenty of other people as well. So I need to know one more thing." His eyes met hers squarely, just as lost as ever. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because –" She stopped short, all future words blocked in her throat, suddenly unsure of what could possibly be said. "I don't know."

"Yes you do," he informed coming a little closer. "I can feel that you do, so why are you helping me?"

"Because…" Closing her eyes she opened her mouth and let whatever was in her mind out. "Because you really don't know who you are. I thought maybe it was a trick at first, but I know it's not. I guess in the end I'm just scared. I'm scared you aren't the only one with this problem, I'm scared of whatever had the power to do this. And I'm scared for you."

"But are you scared of me?"

"No," she answered without missing a beat, the honest in the response surprising her.

Breaking eye contact, Sylar looked down and nodded. Taking a few steps forward he took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. Though her stomach and heart jumped at the contact, Claire for once had no desire to make an effort to pull away. He took his other hand to her head and tilted it to place his lips along her hairline. "Thank you," he whispered.

Without another word Sylar left the room, closing the door behind him. As soon as the click resounded, Claire took a sharp inhale of breath and put her hands to her face to will the blush away. Peeking over her shoulder at where Sylar exited, she slowly smiled knowing that no matter how unpleasant that exchange had been; the air had been cleared and everything was going to be alright between them now.

In the morning when she got up to get ready for class, she wasn't at all bothered or surprised to see Sylar sleeping in the bed next to her.

Nor was she bothered any day afterwards.