Once again. A lot of people wanted very different outcomes, so I compromised. I hope you like it!

This chapter is definitely rated M.

Reviews always help and are always appreciated.

Thank you and happy reading.

Chapter 4

Gabriel nearly dropped Claire in surprise. "Claire you know this man?"

"He's my dad!" she exclaimed in horror as she removed herself from him; frantically trying to straighten out her clothing.

"What are you doing here dad?" she stammered. She saw the gun he had pointed at Gabriel, "and with a gun? Why do you have a gun?" No words could describe her confusion at that point.

"I've been tracking Sylar for the last year Claire, what are you doing here?" He still didn't look away from Gabriel, as if he could disappear at any moment.

"Who the hell is Sylar?" She continued the awkward and angry father-daughter exchange.

"The man who you just detached yourself from," he replied wearily.

"No…" Gabriel protested as he cut in, "My name is Gabriel." Noah's calculative stare turned dangerous.

"Claire get out of here—we'll talk later," Noah commanded.

"No! I am not going anywhere. You need to go. Right now." Claire moved to push him out herself, completely unconcerned that he was still armed. Noah roughly seized Claire and secured her with an arm, as if he were taking her hostage, only the gun was not pointed at her.

"What are you doing?" Claire struggled against him.

"Let go of her," Gabriel warned. His protest earned him a bullet in the stomach. Gabriel stumbled back and grasped the wall for support. He was panting, and ground his teeth through the pain.

"Hello Noah," he rasped, a glimpse of someone else surfaced before he sank back against the wall again.

Claire wasn't sure which man she should be looking at, who she should help. The fact of the matter was that one man she cared about had just been shot, and she had to make sure he was alright.

"Gabriel—" she ripped herself away from her father and ran to Gabriel, meaning to tend to his wound, "are you ok?" she pulled up the front of his shirt to analyze the damage. Claire had done this for her father a few times. The entire area was covered in blood; the actual entry site itself an angry pulsating red, but then the lesion started to pulse and the bullet was slowly expelled from his flesh before fresh skin began to form against the blood. "Get out," Claire growled heatedly at her father.

"Claire…" he tried to reason with her.

"Get out!" she persisted.

"My mistake," he gave up and exited the apartment with a grave expression.

Claire shut the door behind Noah and immediately turned on Gabriel.

"Tell me why he called you Sylar," she demanded.

"I don't know," he delivered the lie for her perfectly; it was a well-prepared response that made Claire's anger rise ten-fold, but it was quite clear to her that she couldn't make him tell her anything.

"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked, surprised that she still cared.

"I will be fine."

It looks that way... What are you?" He looked slightly taken aback by her sudden inquiry, but it had been one hell of a night, and she wanted answers. Claire was genuinely fearful for the first time since homecoming.

"I don't know what you mean," he recovered stonily.

"Alright then, I'll go ask him," Claire turned to leave.

"No Claire wait." She turned around with her arms crossed.

"Why should I?'

"Please," he looked at her with an unguarded expression. "You make me feel… normal… grounded?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she snapped; the anger apparent in her words.

Gabriel laughed, "—It's ironic huh?"

"I'm not following." Claire wasn't sure she wanted to.

"Sometimes I lose the time—and when I wake up…" he looked down at the floor, "I can do things."

"Things," she repeated, "things like—with the bullet."

"That's a first for me," he looked at her warily, "I think I got that from you."

"What like a disease? I'm diseased now?" She stomped her foot in frustration and paced once down the small hallway; suddenly feeling like the space was too small. She whirled around to face him, "God damn it, what the hell is going on?" she was close to tears; the stress multiplying by the second.

Gabriel stood up then and forcefully grabbed her by the shoulders, "Calm down and I'll tell you!"

"Well someone ought to! Last week my life was perfectly normal… well sort of, normal-er!" She opened her mouth to keep her impassioned rant going, but found herself cut off when Gabriel covered her mouth with his in an enthusiastic kiss. Claire was sufficiently distracted as all thoughts were instantly put on standby; the reveled in the feeling of his lips moving against hers.

Claire remembered that she was angry with him and pushed Gabriel back roughly. "You can't just—" he came back with a deeper kiss, trapping her in his arms. "We'll talk about this in the morning?" she compromised and pulled back slightly. He nodded anxiously and continued to kiss her senseless, barely finding room to breath as he tilted her chin up toward his and finally back to rest his forehead against hers; they were both panting heavily.

"Where were we?" he rasped, and readily picked her up. Claire clung to Gabriel just as before, and he awkwardly stumbled into the living room with her still fixed to him. Claire dragged him down to the couch on top of her where he capably caught himself on strong arms. She hungrily attacked his mouth with her own and clumsily worked at unbuttoning his shirt, missing buttons along the way. Gabriel recognized her urgency and ripped the rest of it open. "It was ruined anyway," he muttered uncaringly as he ground his hips into hers.

Claire smiled against his mouth and pushed the rest of the fabric from his shoulders, trailing her hands across the broad expanse of his chest and shoulders. Gabriel languidly slid against her and deepened the kiss as he caressed a thigh and hiked it around his hip. He pulled her up to straddle his lap then, raking his hands up the front of her torso and taking the fabric of her shirt with them. Claire lifted her arms to allow him to gently slide the garment up and off of her body, upon which he twined his fingers through hers above her head after carelessly dropping the shirt behind her.

Gabriel slowly lowered her hands back down with his, and they both pushed against each other. He buried his face in her neck, softly biting and kissing his way up to her jaw, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He fluidly removed her bra as he unclasped the back and lovingly slid the straps down and off. Claire gasped when Gabriel tenderly massaged a breast, gently rolling a nipple between his fingertips, and laving his tongue over the other one.

"Gabriel," Claire moaned and lay back on the couch. She allowed him to take her as he pleased. He continued to trail kisses down the v just above her waistband; sliding her jeans down and off of hips along with her lace underwear. Claire moved to cover herself, but Gabriel stopped her. "Don't do that," he crooned and sat back to straddle her thighs where he could gaze reverently at her naked body beneath his, "you're perfect."

Claire smiled, feeling confident as she sat up to unfasten Gabriel's trousers in return. She followed the dark trail of hair on his tight abdomen with her mouth; removing the rest of his clothing as she went. Gabriel groaned and lifted up her chin, "come here," he demanded softly. Claire slid back up his body where he playfully kissed her and nipped at her lips; he drew back to replace his mouth with two fingers that Claire took into her mouth. She sucked on them lightly before he pulled them out and traced them down her body and between her thighs.

Claire whimpered softly and let her head fall back as Gabriel supported her with one hand on her back. He dipped his already slick fingers into her narrow channel; pumping them inside as he rubbed his thumb over the tiny bundle of nerves he felt there. Claire shuddered and gasped when he found the right spot and curled his fingers; building speed as Claire's breathing grew more rapid with the pressure slowly building in her core.

Claire gasped and her mouth fell open in ecstasy. Gabriel moved to position her on his lap and she panicked. "Wait," she breathed, still reeling from her orgasm.

"Claire," Gabriel soothed.

"I've never done this before," she admitted shyly.

Gabriel pulled back after another kiss, "neither have I," he told her seriously.

"I highly doubt that," Claire panted between kisses.

Gabriel ran a hand through her hair, "I won't ever hurt you." Claire nodded and relaxed slightly at his promise.

She barely felt any pain as he held on to her hips and lowered her onto his shaft. Gabriel hissed; he slowly ran his hands up her thighs and pulled her hips against his hard while he pushed her back onto the couch cushions.

"God Claire…" he groaned, "you feel so good," he managed between kisses. Gabriel knitted one hand in her hair and wrapped an arm around her waist as he plunged into her repeatedly with long and measured strokes.

Claire completely surrendered to Gabriel's capable hands; she very likely wouldn't be able to move if she tried to escape his firm grasp anyway. He tilted his hips slightly; enabling himself to drive into her from a different angle that sent strong waves of pleasure coursing violently through her body. Claire begged for more between loud moans, and Gabriel threw her legs behind her head so he could pound into her hard and fast. It hurt Claire a little in that position and her body had decided she liked it that way, because Gabriel was eliciting delicious noises from it as he continued to slam himself into her. When the shock of her second orgasm that night came, Claire's loud and obnoxious moans turned into breathy sighs. She came, too overwhelmed by the pleasure to do anything else but enjoy that singular blissful moment.

Gabriel allowed her to relax as he kissed her neck tenderly and thrust into her a few more times. He was panting as he spilled himself inside of her, his eyes were screwed shut and his mouth fell open slightly. Claire was sure it was the most beautiful expression she had ever seen on anybody. He collapsed beside Claire and pulled her close so that he could stare at her. His eyes held fear, longing, and trust where she expected him to be momentarily happy.

"I love you," Claire whispered to him and tried to give him a quick kiss, but he stopped her by turning his head to the side.

"Don't say that," his hold tightened possessively and he buried his face in her hair. Claire felt her heart break into a few more pieces, she had just given herself to a man for the first time, and once again she felt all out rejected.

"Why not?" She tried to hide the anguish in her tone.

"Because you'll leave."

Claire's internal clock woke her up early the next morning. She groaned and made an attempt to stretch, despite the man who had her imprisoned in his arms still. Gabriel shifted a little bit; unaware that he had company in his sleep. Claire took a moment to admire him from her position, he had long and dark eyelashes that contrasted beautifully with his masculine features; she decided that she had never seen a person sleep so serenely. She supposed that falling asleep after a night of mind-blowing sex with a person helped things in that department.

Claire began to feel self-conscious about being completely naked with not even a blanket to cover them both, so she tried to escape his tight embrace and find her clothing without disturbing him too much. Her efforts failed as he only tightened his arms around her like a pillow. She decided to hell with it and reached back as best as she could to remove his arms from her body. Gabriel's eyes immediately snapped open at the new kind of contact.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"You're not a morning person then?" she gave him a surprised smile.

"You didn't answer my question." Gabriel was persistent.

"Clothes," Claire replied simply, as if it should be clear. She made an attempt to stand up.

"Who said you could get dressed?" Gabriel pulled her on top of him and devoured her mouth. Claire was instantly carried away with the things he was doing her, but she had the nagging feeling that there was somewhere she needed to be, so she pulled back slightly; Gabriel merely redirection his attentions to her neck and shoulders.

"Mmm… there's somewhere that I need to be," Claire muttered sadly. It was something that she usually woke up this early for, that's all she could really think of at the moment while her tutor was busy teaching her things about the way she worked. 'Oh right—school,' she remembered.

"No you're going to stay here," he insisted and worked a hand between her thighs.

"I can't miss another day," she breathed helplessly.

"I'll take care of it," he promised.

"We need to talk about last night." She whimpered when he stopped his ministrations and glared at her.

"Apparently I'm not doing this right," he removed her from his lap and scooped her clothes up from the floor.

"I'm going to go take a shower," he snapped, and stalked off toward the bathroom; slamming the door.

Claire sat in the spot Gabriel had put her on; dumbstruck in his wake.

'He didn't seriously take my clothes with him?' she thought. This guy was crazy—granted he was adorable, really smart, and not to mention; incredibly skilled with both his hands and his body. She wanted to go after him, and at least make an attempt to get him to come around. Best case scenario; he allowed her to shower with him. Worst case; he never wanted to see her again. This was an affair that needed to be handled delicately, and so Claire sat and waited for him albeit still uncomfortable with her current situation.

Claire glared at Gabriel when he came back out of the bathroom freshly clothed and smelling wonderful. He brusquely toweled his hair off, leaving it sticking in all directions; needless to say, Claire's anger soon dissipated when she looked at him looking as attractive if not more so than he was when he woke up in the morning.

"Can I have my clothes back?" she asked sweetly. He appeared to think about it for a moment.

"They're not clean," he finally decided. "I will give you something else to wear." He disappeared down another hallway, and Claire closely followed him.

"There's hardly anything clean about what we did last night."

"Hence the shower," he threw up an arm against the door frame to block her intended path to his bedroom. "Wait here," he commanded and shut the door. Claire frowned, but did as he said. He emerged a couple of seconds later with a clean button up shirt that he handed to her.

"What are there dead bodies in there?" Claire asked sarcastically.

"Very funny," he gave her a dark look that made her wonder if she wasn't completely wrong.

Claire pulled her arms through the shirt, and went to button it up; it was more trouble than she thought it would be to button a shirt up the opposite way. Gabriel recognized her trouble and knocked her hands away, upon which he caringly assisted her. The simple gesture made Claire smile a bit; it was cute.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, and made an attempt to not blatantly appraise her tanned and exposed legs.

"Aren't you a lovely host?" Claire quipped.

"Hardly," he grinned. "I have to make you stay any way that I can right?"

"Oh so that's what this is all about," Claire guessed aloud. "I am hungry, but more than that; I'm curious, and you promised a talk in the morning."

"Actually you idly stated that we would converse this morning," he played with the hem of her shirt and managed to distract her for a brief moment. "I like you in that shirt," he looked down at her.

"Oh? You know what I like?" she whispered seductively in his ear, "when people don't ignore my questions." Gabriel wasn't daunted by her comment in the least.

"And you won't like me if I don't tell you?" he murmured as he bent in for another kiss. Claire refused to let herself be distracted again and gave him her cheek instead.

"Maybe," she quipped. "But I'll definitely leave." Gabriel frowned at that.

"Ok Claire," he seemed sad and took her hand in his. "Let me make you some breakfast first." Claire followed him to the kitchen.

'He can cook too?' she thought, 'I love this man!' She was thankful that he could not read her thoughts. She came up behind him and ut her hands on his shoulders.

"So what are you making me?" she asked curiously.

"Don't worry about it little Claire," he turned around and had to stop himself from kissing her again; instead he cocked his head and looked at her. "Actually I have something for you to do." Gabriel swept out of the room and quickly came back with a large book.

"A textbook?" Claire frowned.

"You wanted to go to school," he reminded her smugly. "Now you read. I'll cook." He poured her a cup of coffee and went back to work in the kitchen.

Claire looked at the title of the book. "Activating Evolution," by Chandra Suresh. Claire was surprised that she hadn't heard of him before, and she was aiming to be a biochemistry major. She flipped the text open to the table of contents and decided to start out with the chapter on heredity. She supposed the most important thing about evolution to her was how exactly a living organism inherited which traits. She had only a basic understanding of the chapter before her host announced that breakfast was ready. Claire was once again surprised to find that she was actually interested in the reading.

"Wait wait wait," she protested when he moved to take the book from her. "One more paragraph." Gabriel waited patiently until she finished and replaced the book with her plate. Claire took her first bite of omelet; she had found yet another thing that Gabriel did perfectly. "Oh wow…" she murmured, "this is the greatest thing I have ever had in my mouth—why did we go out to breakfast yesterday?" she joked.

"It's just breakfast Claire," Gabriel replied somberly.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked. She was used to his sudden bouts of fury, but he was so sad and out of character that morning, and she was worried.

"Just eat," he commanded softly, and continued to keep a watchful eye on her while she ate. It probably should have seemed odd to her, but she was actually beginning to like how possessive he was becoming when it came to her; it made her feel wanted.

"So how did you enjoy the reading?" Gabriel asked as Claire curled up in his lap on the couch.

"It was good," she replied simply. "I read the chapter on heredity." He looked a little surprised at that, but the expression melted into one of approval.

"I suppose you were serious when you said you were into science," he remarked. "So you had questions."

"Let's start off with the first one," Claire prompted. "Why did my dad call you Sylar?"

"I don't rightly know why."

"I thought we were past that," Claire groaned.

"I'm serious Claire. I told you that sometimes I lose the time."

"What does that mean? Lose the time?"

"I wake up in a manner of speaking… I black out. I find myself in different places with no explanation as to why I am there."

"I see—," she trailed off.

"What do you see?"

"Have you ever seen a psychologist?"

"I'm not crazy Claire."

"I didn't say you were," she defended herself. "I read a little bit about disassociate identity disorder once…"

"And?" he encouraged her to continue.

"…and it might be something for you to consider looking into."

"Your guess is as good as mine I suppose; though I would not say that we are too off base from each other."

"From what I understand… a person develops the disorder if they are plagued by emotional trauma from their past," she pressed for information.

"Emotional trauma," he repeated, but gave her no more information. "So I was abused as a child and now I have this big scary alter ego named Sylar?" he made a weak attempt to hide how ridiculous he thought the idea was.

"You kinda have anger issues," she continued weakly.

"Anger issues? Claire that's nonsense," he chastised her. "When have I ever been angry with you?"

"My point exactly," she muttered.

"I don't understand."

"That night at the hospital?" she hinted.

"I don't really remember that…" his eyes widened fractionally. "Oh," his tone was flat.

"Yeah…"

"So you believe that I truly don't know what your father was talking about?"

"Partially—I still think you know more than you're telling me."

"In what respect?"

"You were shot last night, and you healed in only a few seconds."

"And you want to know how."

"Also—why you said you got that from me," she pushed.

"I told you that sometimes when I… come to… I can do things."

"What else can you do?" she asked excitedly. Gabriel frowned at that, clearly he wasn't proud of the fact.

"Suresh believed that some people have anomalistic abilities that could be emotionally triggered as opposed to slowly developed over time in accordance with nature. Granted a person would have to have the specific genetic marker in their DNA to gain such an ability, but Suresh was convinced that he found a way to code the human genome and was close to identifying the specific sequence of DNA that would indicate a person having the potential to gain one of these abilities."

"Anomalistic abilities?" Claire thought about it for a second, "ok… for example rapid cellular regeneration?"

"Exactly. At this point the most plausible theory is Ability Variants. Every person with the genetic marker for anomalistic abilities, essentially carries the same DNA code; however since this is a matter of accelerated evolution and scientific phenomena, it can be supposed that a person's ability will manifest in a way that suits their emotional mind-set; furthermore it would be triggered by a response to active adrenal glands. So a person who longs to connect with other people may have an ability that manifests in the form of empathetic mimicry, or… a person with the need for advanced survival instincts, may develop… rapid cellular regeneration."

"Is that how you think your body could heal itself last night?"

"No." Claire was confused.

"I don't understand, I thought you said your ability would manifest in that way if triggered by the adrenaline…"

"Claire this is all speculative. If I were to have an ability, it would more than likely have developed earlier on in life, and in a way that suited my lifestyle. For example… the way things work; technically speaking, intuitive aptitude. Keeping in the nontraditional belief sense that the phenotypic restrictions would not apply to this specific gene, I could develop bridges from that gene to other ones. After all, 90% of the human genome is junk DNA."

"Bridges… Meaning that your genome would form connections to other abilities?" Claire laughed. "It sounds to me like you think you're more special than everyone else. What you can have more than one ability and nobody else can?" Gabriel frowned at that.

"I didn't say I was the only one with that specific gene. I've always had a way of understanding the way things work, I imagine other people would be able to do the same."

"That still doesn't explain how you absorbed my ability," Claire obviously wasn't taking this seriously as she burst in to laughter.

"Claire if you don't want to listen to this, then you can get out. This isn't some game; it's not some science project, this is my life."

"I'm sorry," Claire tried to apologize. "It's just… this is all pretty ambiguous." She forced herself to stop smiling. "Please continue." Gabriel looked to be on a whole new level of furious, but he continued anyway.

"If I were to… feel a connection with a person… I would be able to understand how they work; their genome that is."

"And your DNA would shift to accommodate room for the newly acquired dimension of your anomalistic ability."

"Right."

"Ok then," she smiled at him. "I guess there's one way to find out if this is all really bullshit or not." She grabbed a pair of scissors from a desk in the corner of the room.

"What are you doing?" Gabriel asked warily.

"Proving you wrong," she grinned; sliced the tip of her finger open, and held it up for him to see.

"Isn't that something?" he replied smugly as the skin knitted itself back together. Claire blinked and looked at her hand.

"I must have missed it," she slid the blade across her palm; leaving behind a deep and ugly gash. She clamped her jaw shut trying to ignore the pain. Claire shot Gabriel a horrified look and ran into the bathroom. "Damn it!" she screamed and looked at her perfectly healed hand, "what the hell is this?"

Gabriel watched from the doorway and gave Claire her space as she further mangled her left hand and even began cutting her extremities off, only to watch them grow back. Blood filled his bathroom sink as she leaned over it and wept. "No…" she sputtered. "I don't want to be special. I want to be me." She threw her fist into her reflection in the mirror and kept pounding into the broken glass until her rapid loss of blood made her grow weak, and the world faded to black.

Tbc.