I Can Fix You

Previously on Heroes

Claire finds herself at the school gym with her room mate Cathy, running along side her on a treadmill. On her other side is Jessie, a girl that lives across the hall from her. Like Gabriel had predicted, Claire is quite the social butterfly, and was able to become quick friends with the girls in her dorm and classes…..

Jessie's and Cathy's eyes widen. Claire quickens her pace as they exit the gym and head back to the dormitories. "He's thirty, and you're, what, only eighteen?" Jessie says. "Cutting it a bit close, isn't he? Practically a cradle robber."

"It's not like that," Claire says. "He's been a perfect gentleman, and he hasn't pressured me into doing anything I didn't feel like doing. If anything, I've been the one trying to get him into taking things further."

"Psychology into the Criminal Mind," Gabriel says. "You're not taking this class as a way to figure out my father's next move is it? Because it would be a poor move, it's barely a two-hundred level class. A six-hundred level in the masters program maybe…."

Claire does not look away from her computer, "Uh, duh. The class would fulfill a psychology requirement and I figured it'd be an easy A."

There is something strikingly familiar about Professor Jennings but Claire cannot, for the life of her, place her finger on why he seems familiar to her. The professor is tall, thin, with an aged face full of vitality despite the gray in his beard and the hair at his temples…..

Looking outside from the floor above the breeze way, Samson watches on as Claire hurries to the building down the walk way. He works his magic on her, displacing any realization or recognition she might have of his true identity. This shall be interesting, Samson muses to himself.

Chapter 13: No One Mourns The Wicked

In the private booth within the fancy restaurant, Angela Petrelli convenes with Noah and her sons. While Angela is content with her calamari, Nathan, Peter, and Noah are at unease.

"It's almost been a year, Ma," Nathan says, "and we're no closer to finding Gray than when you first had the dream."

"Gabe's becoming anxious," Peter injects. "He's afraid to let Claire out of his sight."

"He already knows his father is in the area," Noah adds. "But what should we do now?"

Angela looks up from her plate, "Do you ever wonder how serial killers were so successful at getting away with their crimes? Usually, they find their target, stalk it, learn their habits, then strike at them when they are most vulnerable. They are meticulous; thorough.

"Then they become sloppy."

"Are you suggesting that we just wait?" Noah asks, incredulous. "Let him come to us?"

Angela scowls, "Do you think I find pleasure in the fact that Mr. Gray has the upper hand? So far, he has stopped killing; however, that leaves no trail for us to follow. So that leaves the old fashioned way of following any suspicious paper trails: old accounts, property in the area. We should include any missing persons' data. If the father and son are anything alike, Mr. Gray might be impersonating someone. We must look at every angle."

"Where should we start?" Peter asks.

~*~

"I never realized how much I could love a class," Claire says to Gabriel. It is about a month and a half into the new semester and Jennings and his class is the only thing Claire seems to talk about, much the Gabriel's dismay. "I mean, I've never had a grade lower than a B in school—"

"When you went to school and not off saving the world," Gabriel mutters.

Claire stares hard at Gabriel, "What is wrong with you?"

"You talk about him like he's the second coming of Christ," Gabriel tells her. "It is one thing to be inspired by your professor, but you're boarder-line in love with him. You go on and on about him being such a charismatic character, commanding and captivating the class room, and how handsome he is—"

Claire's roommate, Cathy, walks into their room and over hears the last part of Gabriel's rant, "Oh, God, was she going about that stupid class again?"

Gabriel motions over to Cathy, "Thank you! See, Claire, I'm not the only one!"

Claire rolls her eyes and playfully nudges Gabriel with her bare foot, causing him lightly fall back onto her bed, "You're just jealous that I actually know someone outside our little circle that is intelligent."

Grabbing her foot and staring at her with a predatory gaze, Gabriel asks, "Are you implying that I am…unintelligent?"

Claire replies, ignoring her roommate's exaggerated gagging motions, with an impish grin,"Mehbeh."

"Ok," Gabriel says, suddenly, as if disinterested. "I guess that means you don't want the early Valentine's Day present I have in my inside pocket of my jacket." At the words 'early Valentine's Day present', both Claire and Cathy whip their gaze toward Gabriel, who is twiddling his thumbs and whistling while staring at the ceiling.

"Claire!" Cathy shouts. "Tell him you're sorry so I can see what he got you!"

Claire pouts, "I'm sorry for trying to make you jealous."

"Oh, so you were trying to make me jealous, now?" Gabriel says, standing up so he could get to his jacket that is hanging on the post of the bunk beds. Pulling two tickets, he continues, "Well, now I'm really uncertain if I should give these to you." Gabriel shrugs. "I can always give these to Matt, I'm sure he and Janice would like a weekend in San Francisco to see Wicked."

Claire and Cathy squeal, "Claire! A weekend alone in San Francisco! I can think of several ways you can beg for forgiveness!"

The two Heroes blush at the obvious innuendo, and Gabriel automatically turns into the shy, nerdy Gabriel Gray, "I, uh, got the tickets last minute. So the seats aren't that great, upper balcony seats I think." He shoves his hands into his pockets, tucking his chin to his chest while stealing peaks at Claire's reaction through his lashes. "I, uh, thought it would be, uh, nice, you know, to have a little trip together, and do…stuff."

"That would be wonderful," Claire says, enjoying the shy side of Gabriel. "When's the performance?"

"It's next Saturday," he says. "I know it's quick notice, but--"

Cathy suddenly cuts in, "Oh Em Gee!!! That's when me and Jessie are going to be there, we got tickets to see Wicked, too!"

Claire blinks, then a bit hurt, "You and Jess are going to San Francisco? How come you never said anything?"

"Well, 'cuz you guys were having a moment," Cathy says, giving Claire a look, as if to say 'duh', totally oblivious that Claire is hurt that they excluded her in their weekend trip.

"I'm gonna go tell Jess, the four of us should totally do something while we're there, right before the show!"

Gabriel watches the other girl bounce out of the room before turning his gaze to his girl in front of him, "What is the matter?"

Claire quickly looks at him, wide eyes and a forced smile, "Nothing!"

Gabriel feels a cold chill shiver down his spine, and gives Claire a knowing look and she relents, "It's just that this is the first time they have excluded me in any plans. But I'm fine; I just get paranoid about feeling left out, probably stemmed from elementary school drama." Claire leans into Gabriel, placing her hands on his chest. "I really hate that ability, you know?"

"I know," he says, leaning against the bed post and wrapping his arms around Claire. "I love you," Gabriel quickly breathes, holding in the last of his breath.

Claire beams at his confession, and stands on her tippy-toes to give the much taller man a brief kiss, "I love you, too, Gabriel."

Gabriel exhales, and pushes a lock of blonde hair behind Claire's ear. "I told you, you would eventually come to love me." As soon as he finishes that sentence, Gabriel cringes, and Claire's expression falls, because when he first said that, it was the day they were at the hotel suite. The day Sylar killed Nathan. The day Sylar left and Gabriel had returned.

"I'm sorry," Gabriel apologizes. "I shouldn't have said that."

"You ought to go," Claire says. "I've still got a lot of homework to do." Gabriel nods, and picks up his jacket. He gives Claire one last glance before heading out the door.

~*~

True to her word, Cathy makes sure that the four of them would get together while they are in San Francisco. Even though they took different modes of transportation and booked different hotels, all three girls took advantage of the freedom away from school, parents, and teachers to do whatever they want while still having the big, strong man that is Gabriel to play body guard.

The performance is not till that night, Gabriel and the girls all got up early to tour the city. Their tour is limited, however, since all the main attractions are closer towards the coast and their hotel is more inland. They are able to enjoy the Golden Gate Park-Claire and Jessie partaking the horse-back riding outing and Cathy and Gabriel exploring the California Academy of Science and the live buffalo reserve.

After successfully squeezing in both the Exploratorium and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art into their sight-seeing, the four decide to eat dinner at a cute, out door café. "Man, I've never walked so much in my life," Jessie whines.

"Oh, come on!" Gabriel quips. "You enjoyed it." He excuses himself to find a restroom, and Cathy and Jessie lean towards Claire.

"Girl," Jessie starts, "as much as we love Gabe, the next time we have a road trip somewhere, he's not coming!"

Claire is startled, "What?"

"Claire," Cathy says, "there are only so many things to do in a day. Gabe's like a nazi when it came to sight-seeing. He's worse than my parents, trying to squeeze everything into a day."

Claire rolls her eyes, and before she can reply, Cathy continues, "But that is beside the point. Did you bring it with you?"

By it, Cathy means the sexy lingerie she and Jessie had talked Claire into purchasing. Claire had been about to buy a new dress for the trip, but Cathy had insisted she borrow her black dress so that Claire could save her money and buy a lacy, red babydoll with a matching skirted thong and garter. It still makes Claire blush to think about it.

"Shhhhh!" Claire hisses, "and yes I did. I still can't believe I let you guys talk me into buying that!"

Before Cathy or Jessie could reply, Gabriel returns to their table. The girls all look at Gabriel, then back at each other. Without another word, the girls burst into giggles, leaving Gabriel feeling very confused.

~*~

"Wicked was amazing, Gabriel," Claire says, leaning into Gabriel with her arms linked around his own arm.

"I am glad you liked it," he says, smiling, before turning his gaze to Claire's friends walking ahead of them, belting off-key to "Defying Gravity". As they are walking back to Gabriel's truck parked a few blocks away, he keeps looking over his shoulder.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Claire inquires, looking around herself and seeing nothing on the streets but herself, Gabriel, Cathy and Jessie.

"Someone's following us," Gabriel says, grimly, his free hand emitting tiny sparks of blue electricity.

Claire's eyes widen, "What? Do you think it could be him?"

"I'm not—" Gabriel is not able to finish, as Claire hears a click, and in the corner of her eye she sees a gun barrel aimed at Gabriel's head. Happening way too quickly for anyone to react accordingly, the gunman pulls the trigger. Gabriel stumbles and tries to turn around as the gunman nabs Claire's purse. The gunman fires three more shots into Gabriel's chest before running off.

As Gabriel falls to the ground, he lets off a pulse of electricity, knocking out all the power within the city block. "GABRIEL!!" As Claire's eyesight adjust to the darkness, and the full moon's bright luminosity, she sees Gabriel is not moving and she kneels to his side.

"Claire! Gabriel!" Claire's friends are rushing towards her side, the clitter-clatter of their heals echoing in the night. "Oh my God!"

Claire ignores her friends, and continues shouting, "Get up! Please! I love you! You can't leave me like this! Dad told me you moved the sweet spot! You can't get killed that way anymore!"

But he still isn't moving, and Cathy and Jessie are too distraught to understand what Claire is saying about a 'sweet spot'. As Claire continues to shake Gabriel, his jacket falls open and Claire sees a white envelope with writing resembling Noah's handwriting. Tears flowing and covered in blood, Claire takes the envelope.

'Just in case'

That is what is written on the envelope, and inside are fake IDs for both her and Gabriel. Claire's head clears. She quickly wipes her hands and the IDs of blood as much as she could and pulls out hers and Gabriel's wallets from one of his inside pockets.

"Claire!" Cathy gasps, Jessie crying on her shoulder. "What are you doing?"

Having switched the IDs and tossing their real drivers' license into the storm drain with the envelope, Claire heaves one last sob as she hands Cathy her copy of their hotel key card and the keys to the truck. "Go back to our hotel room. Talk to no one. If anyone asks, you were not here, nor give out your real names. You were never with us tonight."

"What's going on?" Jessie cries out. "What are you not telling us?"

"Go now!" Claire demands. "I'll explain everything."

Cathy and Jessie both give her uncertain glances, but they do what she tells them to do, and they quickly scurry towards Gabriel's truck. Not watching her friends go off, the flood gates that are her eyes breaks once more as the tears pour out, and Claire cradles her beloved's head in her lap, sobbing and muttering for him to get up.

After what seems like a century, it is only minutes when paramedics arrive.

"Miss!" The first EMT says, "Are you alright?"

Claire is unable to speak. A second EMT gently pulls her away from Gabriel, and as Claire weakly protests at be separated from him, she notices something in her hand. Looking at her hand and it is the bullet that has been dislodged from Gabriel's head. Wide eyed, she barely registers the first EMT exclaims that he found a pulse, and as the EMTs place Gabriel onto a stretcher, the only thought that is going through her mind as she is being ushered into the ambulance, "Oh, shit".

A/N: sorry about the long wait. With the start of summer school and picking up more hours at work, one thing leads to another and I wasn't able to focus on continuing with the story.

Also, im having difficulty trying to continuing with the Samson Gray is going after his son and Claire story line so I apologize in advance for straying off the story. There are just so many other situations and scenarios to stick the Heroes in.

Until next time, fare well and goodnight.