One review for chapter three…thanks melovedk. Here's chapter 4. Chapter 5 will be up in a few days hopefully. I'd really like to know what you guys think of Elle so far. Like how much different is she from the real one on the show? Alright, R&R! Thanks guys!

"Wake up Elle," Claire said gently and didn't want to shake her. She didn't know whether Elle wounds still hurt greatly or if most had healed. But she wasn't taking her chances. "Elle…" she begged. She finally saw Elle's eyes open and the girl groan as sunlight flooded in her eyes.

"What time is it Claire?" she asked plainly as Claire responded saying it was ten.

"Your voice is back," Claire declared happily.

"Yeah and I feel a little better now," Elle said but with no smile. Her body still ached but it wasn't as bad as yesterday. That didn't matter to Claire who had a big grin spread across her face and threw her arms around Elle who was trying to sit up. She awkwardly tried to hug Claire back with a confused look and patted her on the back. Claire was laughing and pulled away but saw Elle's confused look.

"What?" Claire asked with a goofy grin and tilted her head to the side.

"It's nothing…well…" Elle paused. "Why do you and Peter care about me? No one ever has. Besides my dad."

"Your dad?!" Claire exclaimed. "Your dad tortured you and almost killed you!"

"But he did it because he loved me," Elle said with such a sad confused look on her face. "He told me so when I was little. That he'd always love me. So did my toy…I mean friend. His name was Adam. But Adam turned out to be a bad toy...friend…guy."

"Adam?"

"Well he could live forever and couldn't get hurt, I guess he was like you," Elle said shrugging. "He's evil but its fun to electrocute him." A light spark flew off her finger and Claire could swear she saw a small blue glow in her eyes. "But daddy…" her eyes suddenly had terror in them. "He hated him. He got mad every time I visited him. I guess he had given him to me as a present when I was fifteen. But I guess he wanted me to make him hurt. So I guess when I didn't and I tried to be Adam's friend he got mad. Said I was a bad girl."

"Elle you're not a bad girl," Claire said gently.

"Yeah I am," she said looking sad again. "Adam likes to play rough. So I'd play rough because otherwise he won't play at all."

Oh no, Claire thought. "Elle what do you mean by rough?" she asked.

"He liked to mess around, that's what he called it anyways," she said actually looking a little bit shamed. "He used to kiss me all the time and touch me. Then when I'd say stop he would get mad. He'd say that he'd hurt me like daddy did. I hated it. But he always said he deserved it because I was allowed to shock him. He never screwed me but he may have as well. I told him one day I was leaving for good and he said that if I came back he'd hurt me. I hate him."

Claire couldn't believe Elle was opening up to her. She had all this fear of people in her life that she let control her but she'd only known Claire for a little and was telling her some serious stuff. She knew Elle was a stubborn and defiant girl when she wanted to be but deep down she was controlled by all this fear that was built up by a life time of torture. That's why when she wasn't with the people who gave her fear she took control. She needed it. But now she seemed almost normal. Not trying to be rude to Claire. Just a puzzled and hurt girl. "You shouldn't have been with him alone that way he would never have played with you," Claire said gently.

"But my dad said Adam was nothing more than something to play with?" Elle asked confused. "Besides when I was little my dad had playtime. He'd take me into this tiny glass room and all these scary people would start hurting me and scaring me. They'd tell me scary things and send voltage through my body. They used to tell me there were people out there that wanted to hurt me and they'd described it." Elle looked scared as she remembered the ordeal. "I needed my daddy to rescue me from playtime and he always did eventually. Daddy always saved me." Then her eyes changed and became angry. "He always controlled me."

Claire sighed. She could tell that Elle was going to need bit of work. "Elle you have to understand that your dad was an evil man. Play means to have fun. You weren't having—"

"I know what play means, I'm not an idiot," Elle said angrily. "My dad loved playing with me. So he'd have people torture me. That's how he played with me. He had fun watching." Elle's emotion changed quickly. "Then Adam would play with me," she said holding back tears. "I didn't like when Adam played with me but he told me no one else liked me like he did." A tear slid down her face. "It was true," she said softly. "No one would ever pay attention to me like he did when he was nice. But when he was all…you know…he wasn't nice. He was mean. I hated him." Claire shook her head and hugged Elle.

"Elle all those people, your dad, Adam, they are evil. They used you. One of them basically had their way with you. The other one has tortured you to the point of death over the years. You have to let those people go. You know they treat you like a child and push you around like one. But you're not Elle. You're nineteen and you're strong. We care about you Elle, Peter and I. I know trust isn't the easiest thing for you but you need to trust us Elle. We don't want anything to happen to you like what you had to go through." Claire noted that Elle really wasn't that childish though she had a noticeable difficulty of letting go of her dad and her mood swings. She was just vulnerable like a child was because she had been tortured mentally for so long that she had a semi twisted outlook and view on things in life. But other than that she was a normal girl who wanted love, not lust, and wanted to fit in with the world but didn't know how to.

"Claire are you my friend?" she asked finally after wanting to throughout Claire's speech.

"Of course," Claire said laughing.

"Sorry I've never had a friend before," she said a little embarrassed. Claire realized how sad that must be to have never had a friend. No one you could actually trust.

"Never?"

Elle shook her head sadly. "Never. My dad took care of that."

"Well don't worry Elle I promise I'm your friend," she said and grinned. Claire finally saw a genuine smile flick across her face.

"Thanks," she said. "But what if my dad finds us?" She was worried all over again. "He could hurt you guys too. I don't want to go back there."

"We're not going to let you," Claire said firmly. "Right Peter?" she asked and saw Peter walk out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.

"Right," he said and flashed a smile at Elle who was still sitting in bed with Claire next to her. Elle thought she felt her heart skip a beat. Peter was special, she just knew it. She wanted it to be true but she knew how the last guy was. Secretly she shook her head. They just wanted to hurt you. Never care for you. But maybe, just maybe, Peter was different. Maybe. But maybe Peter and Claire were just two people who were bound to let her down again. Two more people who were going to hurt her eventually. The thought of that killed Elle and she looked back and forth between them trying to smile.

"I'm going to go out," Peter said, "and think about our next stop while getting food." With that he threw some clothes on and was out the door and left Claire and Elle alone to talk.

"So where exactly are we?" Elle asked.

"Hotel in Texas," Claire replied. Elle nodded and just lay back against the backboard of the bed. "Want to talk about it?"

"About Texas?"

"No about your dad and everything, you know," Claire explained. She saw Elle sigh. "Is it too soon?"

"No it's just that I've never opened up to anyone but Adam and we all know how that went," Elle said.

"I promise Elle I won't hurt you," Claire promised.

"Okay well, what the hell," she said and laughed. "My mom died when I was three because well I don't know. My dad says she committed suicide because I was too hard to handle but I don't know. I don't want to believe him."

"That's terrible, he's lying," Claire said not believing what a horrible father Bob was.

"Yeah well after that he always liked to test on me and stuff," she said sighing. "Something to do with how much power I could produce. But then he'd use it right back against me. It was awful. No friends, no fun, no life. Have you ever had to live just one day in an empty glass room with strangers staring at you like you're an animal? Try going through that on your birthdays, on any day, no day is different from the next."

"Elle it's over, you're going to be fine," Claire said not confident though. She felt Elle grab her arms and look at her with this sad look.

"It's never going to be over, don't you get it? They have the ability to track us down wherever we are. I don't know how but they do. I…Us…We…are NEVER going to be safe from them till we destroy them. They'll be after you guys and my dad won't stop till he finds me." Her voice quivered with the last sentence. "I'm not letting you get taken. I'll go back." Elle tried to get up but pain shot up her body and she let out another low hiss as she sat up straight.

"No! Elle if I see you again like I just saw you yesterday…" Claire's grabbed Elle's arm but quickly let go as Elle winced. Claire's speech began to falter. "I couldn't live with myself. You're my hero just like Peter. You could have taken me back Elle. But you chose to sacrifice your own life to save mine. Sounds like a total hero to me." That seemed to make her face brighten.

"Really? I mean no I'm not a Hero," Elle said trying to be modest. It was hard for her. She was secretly grinning on the inside and was ecstatic. She'd never been praised before except occasionally from her father and Adam.

"It's okay Elle," Claire said smiling. "You saved me. Peter saved me."

"Peter saved you?" she asked curiously. Claire nodded her head furiously.

"Yeah I mean I was at my homecoming dance at my old school, here in Texas, and this Sylar guy showed up and then he thought my friend was me. He killed her," she said with anger. "He sliced her head open-"

"I know," Elle cut her off, "he's dangerous. He killed several agents of our company. Not regular people. People like you and me."

"Yeah well he came after me but then Peter saved my ass just in time," she said smiling.

"Oh," Elle said assuming that Claire and Peter had a thing. "So is he like your boyfriend or something?" she asked disappointedly. Claire began to laugh though.

"No he's my biological uncle," she said with a smile.

"Oh," Elle said her face beginning to turn red.

"That's okay," Claire laughed. "Most girls have a thing for him. But uh he hasn't had a thing for a girl in a long time." Elle didn't respond.

"So where do you live now?"

"Costa Verde. We moved after my house burned down. Nuclear explosion. Hey you know my dad right?"

"Yeah, sure," Elle said not looking too happy.

"What is it?"

"Your dad watched me get abused all the time," Elle said gloomily. "I know he wasn't happy about it but he was often the head of it. He never did a damn thing to stop them." Claire looked surprised.

"Hey Elle, we're not going to let that happen, okay?"

"Sure," she said with her fear coming back. Trust was not an easy thing.