There's some M rated material in this chapter of an explicit nature. It's been marked by XXX's so feel free to skip around that section. You won't be missing anything important to the plot.

Falling: Part II

April 18, 2006

Gabriel had watched from the shadows for Mrs. Wilson to stop by with his bag of clothes. She had knocked once to let him know that she had arrived and then left the package by the door for him as he had asked. As soon as she was out of sight he had darted out to grab the order and rushed back to the bathroom with them.

He stripped out of the ruined sweater and trousers that he had worn that day and dumped them into an old steel trashcan which he propped up next to an open window. Setting a small fan up to blow in the window's direction he struck a match and flipped it into the can. Since he didn't use an accelerant on them it had taken a few tries to get the fire started but eventually the clothes burned up into a dark gray smoke that billowed out of the window to dissipate in the open air.

Gabriel filled up his mop bucket with some fresh water and set about cleaning himself up as much as possible. Faded streaks of blood were washed from his arms and stomach, around his neck and face, and he had more or less dunked his entire head into the bucket to rinse out his hair. They're still not clean enough. They'll never be clean again. He was in the middle of viciously scrubbing his hands free of the blood that only continued to exist in his own mind for what must have been a dozen times when the high pitched trill of his phone ringing snapped him out of the trance. Gabriel jumped, nearly dumping the water over the floor at the sudden disturbance. After he had returned to his skin and convinced his poor fatigued heart that it was indeed not having an attack he answered.

"Hello, Mr. Gray. Your order is ready now, Sir. Will you be coming by to pick it up today?"

"Yeah," he croaked out. "Yeah, I'll be there in an hour or so."

Everything about returning to the world from what he had just been through felt incredibly surreal. Gabriel had forgotten about anything that might have been going on outside of his shop or the people that would be moving by. The Earth really should have had the courtesy to stop spinning.

Just act natural. Pretend like nothing happened and no one will suspect you.

That Haitian turned away from the monitor that was feeding video coverage from inside of Gray and Sons to fetch his cell phone. He punched in the first speed dial and patiently waited for an answer. After the third ring Angela Petrelli picked up the line.

"It's done then?" She paused for the silent reply. "Good. Be sure to visit Mrs. Davis. Wipe her memory of any knowledge having to do with Gabriel Gray or Chandra Suresh's project. When she discovers that her husband has gone missing we can't have the last known address of his whereabouts reported."

The line promptly disconnected. He spared a glance back at the screen to see Gabriel grabbing his coat and leaving the shop in a hurry before climbing into the driver's seat of the Primatech van and rolling out of the alley.

Claire had just put the finishing touches on her makeup and hair when stepped back from the mirror to take a long scrutinizing look at herself. Long ringlets of blonde curls were left to graciously fall from the elegant pile pinned up on top of her head. Since Gabriel had specifically stated that he enjoyed seeing her in white she had pulled on a silky cream colored blouse that fell away from her shoulders to gather around her chest and a long off-white leather skirt that stopped just over booted heels. Except maybe for the subtle increase of weight around her midsection that she beginning to feel self conscious about she was quite confident that he would find her appearance appealing. Nervous butterflies were turning circles about her stomach when another knock came at the door. She excitedly jumped to answer, toying with the new chain that hung from her neck, and wondering what else he could possibly have in store for his surprises.

Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw Gabriel standing there with anxiously fidgeting hands. He peeked up at her from beneath a lock of dark hair that had fallen over an eye, the rest of it being haphazardly swept back by fingers. His glasses had been left behind as well as his typical fashion, wearing a simple black collared shirt over black jeans. He had opened his mouth to say something but hadn't gotten the chance.

She had been building anticipation all day and found herself unable to wait a second longer. Practically jumping into his arms Claire pulled him inside and crashed her mouth onto his. They stumbled about in a daze, roughly backing against a wall and then falling over a chair onto the table. She wanted to explain exactly how much she had appreciated his gifts but couldn't force herself to stop kissing him long enough to get the words across so instead she attempted to spell it out with every wet smack of their skin, happily settling for a muffled, "I love you."

A barely detectable tremble ached in his shoulders and when she pulled back to see why she was met with a pair of clouded brown eyes. "Gabriel, what's wrong?"

He should have known that he would be able to hide from her. Claire stared right through the brave face that he had slapped on for the rest of the world. "I, um… I - I had a really bad day." It wasn't a lie. He just failed to include all the implications of the truth. I murdered a man in cold blood, cut him into pieces, and dumped the body for rats to eat. His throat tightened and he felt like he could wretch bile at the memory of Brian's blood coating his hands.

"Oh, Gabriel," she tugged him into her when he let slip a pitiful whimper. "What happened to you?" That question only caused his façade to buckle faster. She wouldn't assume that it could be something that he had done, only what could have happened to him. Claire looked down at him the same way he had looked at her the first time he realized that something truly terrible had happened to her.

"Please, Claire. Please…" He wasn't even sure what exactly it was that he was begging her for. Punishment? Did he need her to tell him what a terrible man he was for what he had done? That he didn't deserve her or the life they were building together? Or was it absolution that he was seeking? Perhaps all he really needed her to do was hold him and tell him that everything would be alright because that was the path that she chose for them.

Claire looped her arms around his waist to let him break apart in her embrace until his knees gave out and he was tugging her to the floor with him. "Please, Claire." She clutched his head to her breast, rubbing soothing circles into his back with one hand, smoothing his hair from his eyes with the other. "Please…" he continued to whimper, heaving against her smaller frame.

"Shh. It's okay. Everything is going to be okay." Her lips found the crown of his head to leave a doting kiss there. And then his forehead. And then, tilting his jaw in a soft hand she found his mouth. The look in his eyes could have belonged to a wild animal that had been grievously wounded, a whirlwind of revolving emotional mayhem, but he was more startled to find that his insecurities weren't being reflected back on him. She didn't see his failures or his flaws when she looked back at him. In her gaze there was only love and compassion. Claire was in the middle of watching him fall to pieces all around her and she still wanted him.

xxx

"Please," he whispered into their kiss, timidly ghosting his lips over hers. "Please." Claire silently nodded her acceptance to what was happening between. Quiet desperation overtook his actions. Her fingers threaded through his hair as they bent over backwards on the floor, mouths frantically colliding at a fevered pitch. He ripped her blouse out from the hem of her skirt, pulling the buttons apart as she shadowed the action until their skin could make open contact.

Her skirt was too tight, the leather binding so that he couldn't pry her legs apart fast enough. Strong hands slid up her legs and roamed over the expanse of her thighs, shoving the fabric upward around her waist so that he could hook this thumbs into the sides of her panties and yank them away to be flung carelessly over his shoulder. His fingers thrust into her with abandon, willing her to be ready until her breathing was hitching at regular intervals. In the rising frustration of panic, Claire threw her legs around him, her booted heels digging harshly into his back as he fumbled with the fastenings of his pants to free himself. There wasn't a trace of hesitation before he popped inside of her with one swift stroke followed by a heavy sigh of relief.

Claire's body instantly reacted to the invasion as it always did, her muscles clenching painfully tight as they struggled to heal the damage and snap back into place, working to reject the foreign body and push him back out. His head dropped into the crook of her neck, panting wildly while he stilled his motions without being able to deny the full body shiver that rippled down his spine. The simple comfort in touch seemed to soothe all of his anxieties for the moment so that they were content to just be.

"I love you," he rasped in response to the butterfly kisses that she trailed down his cheek and jaw. Careful to keep the full extent of his weight from baring down on her Gabriel rolled over, pulling her with him so that she rested neatly on top allowing him to admire the disheveled beauty of the body adorning him. A faint, shy smile threatened to creep out when he was able to palm her stomach in wonder. She stifled a giggle when his fingers drew a line down from her navel over the small bump that was already beginning to emerge from behind the taut flesh.

The muscle movement from her laugh clenched her body around him again earning a hiss of breath from between his teeth that reminded them of what exactly it was they were doing. His hands drifted back down to her hips, gripping her to set a standard for movement. Claire rolled her head back at first, amicably following his pace but soon enough she was seizing his wrists and rolling forward to pin them above his head. She liked being in control and a small, disturbed part him enjoyed the domination as well.

Gabriel's eyes followed every tense line and contraction of muscle in her body through the curtain of waving blonde hair that had fallen over her face with the rolling of her hips and arching of her back. Claire had closed her eyes to focus on the sensations, slowly gaining momentum with her untiring thighs, but they snapped open instantly when he rocked forward to adjust angles, tugging her back down with him in an effort to slow her progress. Whether she appreciated the interruption or not didn't matter. He just had to keep from crossing the finish line before she started the race.

xxx

"René, why is the monitor off?" Noah asked his partner irritably when he climbed into the Primatech van. He had had a very long and trying afternoon with Eden, pushing her along in her agreement to get Claire and the Petrellis' names off of Suresh's list, and then helping to set her up with her new apartment and identity so that she could further keep an eye on the doctor. The young con-artist had left him in no mood to deal with laziness or shenanigans. Before the Haitian could stop him Noah flipped on the screen.

"What the?"

Gabriel appeared to be hunched over something on the couch with his back to the camera. He straightened back out into an awkward sitting position on his knees bringing someone with him… Noah blinked at the apartment video several times, his frazzled brain trying to understand what it was that he was seeing. Her head flopped back onto his shoulder and he realized that it was Claire that Gabriel was holding. His arms wrapped around her, almost seeming to rock back and forth. Claire clenched her eyes shut tight and her mouth opened in a silent scream and oh my God…

René reached out from the driver's seat where he had been waiting out the exchange and flicked off the screen again giving Noah a reproachful glare in the process. He pulled off his horn-rimmed glasses, still blinking in surprise, and polished the lenses while he sat numbly for several minutes working through what had just happened. And then the renowned Company man came back with a vengeance.

Noah returned his specs to their rightful position, grabbed his gun, checked that it was loaded and made to bolt out the door. The Haitian skittered after him, catching the man by the arm just as he was approaching the back entrance to the apartment building. "I am not just going to stand by while that man is defiling my daughter!" he shouted, whirling around on his partner.

"She is not your Claire," René tried to explain in his characteristically calm tone of voice. "That Claire Bennet is not the one you know. She is a grown woman that has witnessed her own world fall apart. And now, she is doing what she has to in order to keep that from happening again."

Bennet pretended to listen to his point but as soon as he saw opportunity, made to reacquire his prior task with gun in hand. It was only under threat of the Haitian using his power to knock him out that Noah feigned reason and backed down. Back in the van he shot his counterpart a venomous glance before yanking out the tape of activity in Gray and Sons for that afternoon and popped it in to watch.

If his blood wasn't simmering in his veins already it came to a rolling boil as he caught the recap of Brian Davis crumpling to the floor. His eyes widened and narrowed at the same time when Gabriel poked around for the ability, later using it to pull the blood straight from the floorboards after dragging the contained body out of view. Sylar had made his first kill which meant total mission failure and ensuing termination. And now the very same monster was alone with Claire doing unspeakable things to her.

René is right. She's not my Claire. And if I have anything to do about it she never will be. It's time to call in the big guns.

Noah took out his phone and scanned over the contact list before entering a number. "Get me Elle Bishop please."

Gabriel panted against the skin of her neck. A slow smile crept over his lips after having been allowed to empty all of his trepidations into the girl that he held. His arms were like iron bands around her boneless body, clutching her tightly to him while a hand lazily drifted to capture her jaw. "I love hearing you scream," he whispered, placing a kiss between her shoulder blades. Claire's response amounted to an unintelligible Uh huh.

Fingers trailed down from her stomach and over her hip to explore between her legs causing a fearsome hiss of breath. She lolled her hazy eyes around to meet his expectation for attention. "Come with me. I have something to show you."

He helped her to straighten out her clothes and did the same for himself before taking her by the hand and leading them up to the maintenance hatch that opened onto the roof. At first all she could see was the dull ambience of city lights shining around them, but then Gabriel stepped back to throw a switch. The little section of rooftop that he kept as his solitary thinking spot blazed to life with hundreds of twinkling lights that had been strung about bringing into view a covered table with a chilling bottle of champagne and glasses already waiting for them.

"Surprise."

Claire's eyes ignited with bright wonder. "Gabriel, this is amazing."

"There's a few things that we need to talk about," he started when they took their seats. He chewed on his bottom lip while he poured out some of the champagne debating on where to start. Claire, sweet-heart, we're going to have a baby, or, Claire, baby, I'm a cold blooded murderer. Gabriel could feel the weight of his last box bound surprise still resting in the pocket of his jeans and sighed. Full disclosure. She deserves the truth.

"Claire, um," she made it so hard to think through what he needed to say when she smiled up at him with openly trusting eyes. "There's, um… I've been… Uh, Claire," he drained his glass nervously. "There's something that I've been keeping from you."

The smile faded from her features to be replaced by fretful lines of worry. "I don't really know how to explain it so I'll just show you." Gabriel held out his hand to his empty glass and gave it a push with his mind. She watched the object slowly scoot inch by inch in her direction until it toppled off the table and clinked loudly onto the floor. He observed the tight swallow through her constricting throat and the horrified widening of her eyes.

"Claire, say something. Anything, please."

Her heart beat jumped in pace to that of a marathon runner and hammered away in the arteries of her neck. Her hands visibly shook as they gripped the table for support. "Claire?"

"How long have you been able to do that?" she grit out between clenched teeth.

Gabriel couldn't read whether it was stark panic or blind rage that was rolling off of her, perhaps a combination of both. Out of all the scenarios he had plotted out he had never imagined that particular reaction taking place. He had thought out all the ways that she could be happy to find that he was special like her, or sympathetic and willing to help him learn about their world, even some rather explicit ideas about all of the things that he might get her to agree to try in bedroom with abilities. But such a powerfully negative reaction had never crossed his mind.

"Claire, I -"

"Don't," she snarled at him with a tear rolling down her cheek. "You killed him didn't you?"

He was at a loss for words. How did she know? "Claire, please, listen -"

"Stay away from me!" Gabriel stood from his chair to reach for her and she very nearly tumbled out of hers scrambling to gain distance from him. Claire backed her way across the roof to the very edge.

"Claire, I didn't mean to. I didn't want to hurt him, I swear." I didn't want to. I had to. "Please, it'll never happen again. I'll never hurt anybody ever again, I swear, please." Gabriel took another pleading step in her direction and she leaned back over the wall still trying to get away from him.

"Claire, get away from the wall. You'll fall."

"Don't," she hissed at him again. "You don't get to talk to me like that. You don't get to pretend like you give a damn anymore, Sylar."

Sylar…? "Please, just come away from the wall before you hurt yourself or the -" Gabriel lurched forward to keep her from inadvertently harming the baby with her hysterics and raised a hand to reach for her, but at the sight of his wrist flicking in her direction she jumped, falling backwards over the edge of the roof in what felt like slow motion to him. He rushed to the wall, straining every fiber of his new power to catch her but ultimately failed to have the level of control needed for an object the size of a person. He was forced to helplessly watch in terror as Claire plummeted to the street below and hit the concrete with a thud that dropped him to his knees. Someone screaming in the distance echoed back to him when he was wrenching the maintenance hatch back open and hurdling down the stairs faster than physics should have permitted his body to move.

Claire twisted her neck back into place with a harsh cracking of bone and set her splintered legs to heal. She was up and running again before anyone had time to come check on the body. She pushed her legs to keep pounding away at the concrete, to keep moving, keep running from shadow figures that only existed in her own mind long after Gabriel's apartment building had been lost from sight. She exhausted her limits until she was running just to stay upright. There should have been sharp lances of pain arching through her, stitches in her side for breath but she couldn't feel any of it. The fog rolling over her vision and the tell tale trickle of something warm and wet down her leg should have been a sign to stop, but she was gruesomely used to the feel of blood so much that she barely noticed and the tears stinging her eyes explained the rest. It wasn't until she smacked into the corner of a small loan office for support that she began to realize something was terribly wrong with her body.

Gabriel launched himself out of the door to his apartment building, scrambling over the walk way where she must have landed to find her. A disturbing amount of her blood puddled in the street but there was no body. She's alive, he breathed internally with a minute amount of relief. He didn't have time to think anything else though before a white van peeled around the corner and screeched past him baring the logo for Primatech Paper Co. Everything in his intuition screamed at him to follow the van, that they would know where she was and what was happening so without another thought he broke into a dead sprint in the same direction.

Dark hands hefted her limp body into comforting arms and toted Claire off to the only place that could help her.

To be continued...