The next day…

Gabriel took Dani to sleep in our bed last night. I cleaned up the water in the kitchen and spent the rest of the dark hours railing at myself silently, cursing my own stupidity, and praying that I might get a chance to make things right. When I wasn't doing that, I wondered when the hell Gabriel had planned on telling me that our daughter was a healer.

He finds me this morning, asleep with my head on the table, tear tracks on my cheeks. His hand caressing my hair wakes me, and I jolt upright.

"She's sleeping," he says in answer to my unspoken question, "and she'll remain that way until I tell her to wake up." With that, he backhands me hard. I turn back to him, tasting blood.

"You stupid fool," he growls. "You have never acted more carelessly, more idiotically, more fucking brainlessly than you did last night."

"I'm sorry," I whisper. I can't begin to find words to tell him how awful, how wretched I feel. "I'm so sorry."

He hits me again, knocking me to the floor. "You don't feel bad enough yet, Claire. I'll help you get there, though."

"Please Gabriel," I sob from the floor, feeling where my teeth have lacerated my lips. "You can hear my thoughts. You know how much I hate myself for this."

"Good. You are a pathetic excuse for a mother. Maybe it's better that our son died. You didn't get the chance to hurt him like you hurt Danielle." His voice is cold, but it sparks a fire of rage in me.

"You… you… you gutless, hateful, fucking bastard! God damn you, Sylar, how could you say that?" His words have left me mired down in a swamp of guilt and hate. Hate for him. Hate for myself. He smiles, a chilling expression with no mirth whatsoever.

"Of course I can say that. You've gotten complacent, content with Gabriel. But you can't have one without the other, Claire. And don't distract me from the topic at hand." He moves his hand and I am suddenly gushing blood from the wound he's made in my neck. He speaks as my vocal cords slowly heal with the rest of my throat.

"If Danielle weren't special, she'd be dead now. Do you understand that you could have killed her?"

"But she isn't dead. And when were you going to mention that? How could you keep that from me? What did you do to her?" I scream the last question at him, sobbing as he lashes my skin with his will.

"What did I do? I brought you what you needed, Claire. I gave you the chance to have a happy family, found you a baby who can never be injured, who can live forever with you, and you will never have to watch her die. I didn't make her; I just brought her to someone who could appreciate her unique qualities." He continues before I can open my mouth, "And don't give me that garbage about how you think it's a curse. Danielle will never have to be alone."His voice is bitter. "You didn't, either. Yet you continually isolate yourself and destroy any chance of happiness that I offer you. You are the worst kind of moron."

He takes hours, not making me hurt myself, but showing me that he is the one in charge, the one who wants me to suffer. I'm never going to get the stain of blood out of these boards. I find myself grateful that Dani is asleep. I scream until my throat is raw and bleeding.

It's almost three in the afternoon by the time he finishes with me. I shudder on the floor as he looks down at me. When I gaze up to his face, almost all traces of anger are gone. Today's been cathartic. He's worked off most of his fury.

"If you ever let something like this happen again, I will make you beg for death a hundred times over."

He bends and picks me up. I'm too tired to protest, or even lean away from him. He takes me to the bathroom and makes me shower while he cleans my blood off the kitchen floor. Gabriel—Sylar?—I don't know—returns to the room just as I finish my shower.

"And now," he says quietly, "you can tell your daughter how sorry you are." He smoothes her hair back and she yawns, the princess waking from her enchanted sleep. She sits up and smiles at me.

"Hi Mommy. I help you cook, but I gotta owie." My eyes fill as she frowns, remembering the pain of her 'owies'.

"I'm so sorry baby. I'm sorry." A tear slips down my cheek and Dani reaches out to touch it.

"Don't cry, Mommy. Daddy fix it all better."

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