I Can Fix You
Previously on Heroes
"It's almost been a year, Ma," Nathan says, "and we're no closer to finding Gray than when you first had the dream."
"Mr. Gray has the upper hand. So far, he has stopped killing; however, that leaves no trail for us to follow. If the father and son are anything alike, Mr. Gray might be impersonating someone. We must look at every angle."
Claire and Cathy squeal, "Claire! A weekend alone in San Francisco!"
"Why do you keep doing that?" Claire inquires. "Someone's following us," Gabriel says.
Claire's eyes widen, "What? Do you think it could be him?"
Claire sees a gun barrel aimed at Gabriel's head. Happening way too quickly for anyone to react accordingly, the gunman pulls the trigger. The gunman nabs Claire's purse and fires three more shots into Gabriel's chest before running off.
Looking at her hand, she sees it is the bullet that has been dislodged from Gabriel's head. Wide eyed, she barely registers the first EMT exclaim 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 is, "Oh, shit".
Chapter 14: This Is How I Disappear
"We're very sorry for your loss, Miss Livingston," Detective Maria Ross says to Claire. "My partner and I understand that what you went through tonight was traumatic. What ever you can tell us, it will be helpful in catching the guy."
Ross's partner, Detective Dmitri Ryan, speaks, "What can you tell us? Start with the moment you and your boyfriend left the theater."
Claire is silent for the longest time. She had hidden the fact that Gabriel was shot in the back of the head from the EMTs, as the bullet that dropped into her hand proved evident that the head wound was gone. But they declared him dead on arrival. The event that night caused her to become semi-catatonic. She was not sure if it was an act or if he was really dead for good, as she has not been able to see his body as the EMTs and doctors rolled him to the morgue. Claire hid the bullet inside her strapless bra as she was changing into some clothes provided by the hospital. She hopes that Matt will be able to find something off the bullet.
"Miss Livingston?" Ryan inquires, pulling Claire out of her stupor. "Do you need some water?" Without waiting for an answer, he motions to his partner the pitcher and a plastic cup. Claire guzzles down the water.
"Thank you," Claire manages to say.
Ross nods, "Now, what do you remember?"
Claire becomes unfocused in her gaze, trying not to let her emotions compromise the blend of the truth and lies to protect her and Gabriel. "He hated crowds, and traffic, Jimmy did. Since it was supposed to be a clear night, he proposed that we park a ways back from the theater…. Jimmy had a gut feeling that someone was following us. But I didn't see anyone but us, we had parked that far out. Suddenly, I hear a click, and as soon as we turn around, Jimmy gets three shots in the chest and my clutch purse is gone."
"We noted that your wallet was in Jimmy's coat," Ryan says. "What was in the purse? Was there anything of value in it?"
Claire shrugs, "Just my make-up and cell phone. It was our first weekend away together, I was so excited about it all, I made sure Jimmy had my wallet. I wasn't used to carrying a clutch purse, y'know?" Claire looks hopelessly at the detectives, the levees breaking and tears come pouring out. "Why did this happen? We're supposed to be forever. Not figuratively, but literally forever."
Ross kneels down so that she is at eye level with Claire, "We will find out who did this."
Ryan continues, "You said your cell phone was left in the purse, was it turned on? We can call the service provider; see if they can find the GPS signal."
Claire shakes her head, "No, I turned it off right before the show started." She pours herself some more water and takes a sip. "Have they cut him up? I've watched a lot of CSI, and I know that's what they do to all the dead people. Can I see him, one last time, just as he is?"
Ryan and Ross nod, "The ME's finishing up on a couple o' vics right now, figured as much that you'll want to say good bye," Ryan tells Claire.
The detectives lead Claire down a hall, and one of the ME's assistants points the trio to the room Gabriel's body is being kept. Claire glances back toward the detectives and sees them speaking to the EMT that picked up Gabriel and her.
Pushing the door to the morgue open, Claire sees…nothing. She lets out a blood-curdling scream. The detectives and doctors come pouring in and Claire launches herself at Ryan, "WHERE IS HE?!" She keeps screaming, repeatedly pounding her fists against Ryan's broad chest. "YOU SAID HE WAS IN HERE!!"
Ryan grabs her wrists and pulls her into the hallway, where Ross and the doctors are scrambling around, calling for security and wondering where Jimmy could have gone. Ryan guides Claire to a spot away from the commotion, "Stay put," he tells her. Ryan does not tell her that things were going to be ok, or that they'll find Gabriel's body, he just says to stay put.
As soon as Ryan turns his back and is out of Claire's sight, a large hand covers her mouth and she sees a long arm arching over her, hugging her close to a hard, lean body. Claire sneaks a peak at her captor. From the white coat and scrubs he is wearing, he's one of the doctors but Claire does not recognize him. She struggles as the man half-carries/half-drags her to a flight of stairs leading to the roof.
"CLAIRE," the man cries in a whispered yell. "It's me! Gabriel!" As he was talking, Claire audibly hears bone crunching and shifting, as the man becomes taller, younger, and the baggy scrubs fill out with Gabriel's muscular form.
"You're ok!" Claire cries in disbelief. They cup each other's faces in shaky hands, and as Gabriel leans toward Claire, she starts wailing him with her tiny fists. "You asshole! You have any idea how scared I was? I thought you were actually dead! You could've given me some hint that you were ok! Why didn't you wait till I got to you, I wouldn't have made such a scene! Now the whole San Francisco Police Department will be out looking for us, you jerk-faced jerk!"
Gabriel pulls her close and silences her with a hard kiss. Pressing his forehead against hers, "I'm sorry, I really am. But I was afraid to do anything that would give us away. It took a lot to keep myself from healing in front of the doctors. Between revealing my abilities and letting them believe some sicko is stealing fresh cadavers from the morgue, I took the lesser of two evils."
But Claire stares hard at Gabriel, "I thought you were dead. The EMTs pronounced you dead at 11:15 pm. We didn't even reach the hospital."
"Cut the dramatics, Claire," Gabriel snaps. "I'm not dead, and in case you haven't realized, neither one of us has this all planned out. We need to get out of here before they discover us!"
~*~
In Washington, DC, Peter steps into his apartment. He strips out of his paramedic uniform and debates on going straight to bed or a shower to sooth his stiff muscles. Peter decides on the former and settles in his bed. As he is about to doze off, the sound of the phone jars him back to reality.
Groaning, Peter feels around his night stand for the phone. "Yeah," he says, too exhausted to remember pleasantries.
"Haven't you heard of a cell phone?" says the voice Peter recognizes to be Noah Bennet's. "I've been trying to call you all night!"
"Noah, I just got home from a shift at work, I probably left my cell in my locker at the hospital," Peter glances at the clock. "It's almost 4:30, what do you need?"
"I received an email from Micah Saunders," Noah says. "We have a lead."
Peter becomes wide awake, "What kind of lead?"
"Going on the theory that Gray might be using an alias," Noah starts, "we had Micah filter through property records, leases, and motels and see if any names pop up without viable IRS records proving they exist and paying their taxes.
"That proved to be more complicated as there are hundreds of people with the same first and last name. So we checked missing persons."
"What'd you find?" Peter wants to know, any chance for sleep gone.
"A psychologist by the name of Jacob Jennings, he moved to LA from the Midwest. Not the type to ignore family, they were concerned when they never heard from and contacted the LAPD. And get this, he was just signed on to the faculty of UCLA. Gray's posing as one of Claire's professors!"
"Are you sure about this?"
"It's too much to be a coincidence, Peter. Just as we find out that Gray's in California, a man goes missing. A man that always kept in touch with friends and family, he disappears but credit cards are still active and in use. Plus, the description the University gave does not match the real Jennings' photo."
"Oh, no," Peter mutters. "I'm on my way to Costa Verde. Does Matt know?"
"Yeah," Noah says. "I told him to wait on you for back up before checking things out."
~*~
It takes about an hour and a half for Claire and Gabriel to reach the hotel. When they made it to the rooftop of the hospital, Gabriel had to telekinetically float themselves to the ground near some woods and take the back way to their destination. They found the fire escape around the back, but the iron ladder was stuck in place with rust, and made an awful noise when Gabriel tries to TK it loose. Instead, he lifts Claire so she can reach the ladder and pull herself up before floating himself up.
They make it to their floor and as Gabriel jimmies the window open, he asks, "You sure Cathy and Jess will be in the room?"
Claire nods, "Yeah….I hopes so. I just don't know how to explain this to them." They approach room 623 and Claire gives a tentative knock. "You guys there? It's Claire."
"Claire?!" came the muffled response as Cathy opens the door with Jessie standing right behind her, still in their evening wear and mascara smeared. However, when their gazes move from Claire to Gabriel standing beside her, Cathy's and Jessie's eyes widens as their chests heaves up, as if to scream.
Both Claire and Gabriel notice this and they clamp their hands over the girls' mouths. Shoving themselves and the girls back into their room, Gabriel surveys the hallway outside the room before facing Claire's friends.
"Wh-wh-what happened?" Cathy stutters. "We saw you on the ground, covered in blood."
"We thought you were dead," Jessie says, "and Claire dumps your guy's driver's licenses and tells us that we were never with you guys. What are you not telling us?"
"To put it simply," Gabriel says, not facing the girls but moving to pack his and Claire's belongings, "the X-Men are real, only without the fancy gadgets and spandex."
"What he means is," Claire says, giving Gabriel a hard stare, "there are people out there with special abilities. Some are amazing, some are dangerous, and it is important that the world doesn't know that those people exist. People like me and Gabriel."
"Abilities, like what kind of abilities?" Cathy and Jessie want to know.
"For starters," Gabriel pipes, grabbing some clean clothes and heads towards the bathroom, as he is still in scrubs, "we can't die."
Claire groans, "Gabriel, do you have to be so crass?"
"Claire, I don't have time to be sensitive right now," he growls. "I got shot….someone shot me in the back of the head. Pardon me for being a little pissed." He slams the bathroom door shut, and the sound of the shower is heard.
"What did he mean, you guys can't die?" Cathy asks.
"Rapid cellular regeneration," Claire explains. "If I get injured, my body creates new tissue to replace the injured parts so that I'm good and new. I can never get sick, and I can't die. A shot to the head could kill me, but Gabriel's a special case, he can't be taken out that easily."
"So you both have this ability?"
Claire nods, "But Gabriel got the ability from me, as he obtained multiple abilities from other people."
"How'd he do that?" Jessie wants to know.
"You don't want to know," the girls jump at Gabriel's voice, as they did not realize he had finished his shower.
"You girls' need to stop by your hotel?" Gabriel asks.
Jessie and Cathy shake their heads, "No, we grabbed our stuff and checked out as soon as we could before coming here," Cathy says.
Gabriel nods, "Good, change into something more comfortable, borrow Claire's clothes if you have to. You're riding with us back to LA, and I'm not stopping for anything but gas."
The girls change clothes as Gabriel proceeds to continue packing and making sure nothing is left out, not bothering to give them privacy. When Claire pulls the t-shirt over her head, she hears a soft pat of something hitting the floor. She looks down and sees the bullet.
Gabriel notices Claire freeze and looks at where she is staring at.
"What is that?" he wants to know.
"It's the bullet that was shot at your head," Claire says, picking it up and handing it to Gabriel.
As he handles the bullet between his fingers, an image flashes in Gabriel's mind.
"Claire, you, Cathy, and Jessie will have to leave without me," Gabriel says, tossing Claire the keys. Claire rushes at him and turns him around, so that he's facing her. Looking into Gabriel's eyes, Claire sees something she thought she was never encounter again….
"Where are you going?" Claire demands.
"The man who shot me," Gabriel says, with a glint in his eyes, "I know where he lives.
"I'm going to find him, and then I'm going to kill him."
A/N: whewwy, is it me or is it getting hot?
Until next time, farewell and good night