I Can Fix You
Previously on Heroes
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."
"CLAIRE," the man cries in a whispered yell. "It's me! Gabriel!"
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!"
"I received an email from Micah Saunders," Noah says. "We have a lead. Gray's posing as one of Claire's professors!"
"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?"
Claire says, "there are people out there with special abilities, and it is important that the world doesn't know that those people exist. People like me and Gabriel."
"It's the bullet that was shot at your head," Claire says, picking it up and handing it to Gabriel.
"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."
Chapter 15: Beauty Has Her Way
As soon as Gabriel uttered those final words, he turns around with a swift motion and exits the hotel room.
Claire gathers her senses and follows Gabriel. However, she is a nanosecond behind him but Gabriel is no where in sight. "Dammit," Claire mutters to herself.
She re-enters the room and sees her friends, staring at her with a mixture of horror, wonder, and confusion.
"Was that another one of his abilities?" Cathy asks.
Claire furrows her brows. "What do you mean?"
"We saw his lips moving," Jessie says, "but we couldn't hear a word he was saying. There was no sound coming from him. Or you."
Claire thinks, going over all the abilities she know Gabriel has. "Sound manipulation," she concludes. "He must have prevented sound waves from reaching your ears, or something."
"Why? What did he say that was so important that he didn't want us knowing?" Jessie wants to know.
"He didn't want you to know what he's capable of," Lucky them, Claire thinks. "We need to get out of here."
~*~
Gabriel is able to find the home of his shooter, with relative ease. The history he had flashed on from the bullet gave him the location he needed to get to. Like hitting rewind, from the moment his Claire hands him the bullet, he sees it when Claire hides it in her bra, to the moment it was aimed at his head, and finally to the location where it was loaded into the gun. There! If he concentrated further, Gabriel probably would have found out the point of origin of where the bullet was made.
Surveying his surroundings, Gabriel does not know what to make of his assailant. While the apartment is not presentable for decent company, it was fairly clean and livable. Gabriel notes dirty dishes in the sink, jars of peanut butter and jelly on the counter, laundry strewn across the couch….and a child's mini-kitchenette play set in the corner of the living room.
Gabriel had let his finger tips lightly graze the items in the home, picking up memories of the person. Gabriel feels his anger leaving, being replaced with pity and sorrow. It was evident from the history he was flashing on that the person had a delinquent past and done some time, but he was trying to make something of his life. Michael Dobson was trying to turn his life around. Gabriel learns that Dobson was going back to school, based on the worn backpack and books on the table. From the hard hat on top of the TV, Dobson found a job he was good at as a construction worker; from the play set, a four-year-old girl who loves her daddy very much.
"Who the fuck are you!" Gabriel turns and sees Dobson at the door, holding a bat Gabriel had noted earlier. Dobson's eyes widen when he gets a good look at Gabriel. "You…you're..," he stutters.
Gabriel brings his hands up, palms facing out. "Yes, I'm alive," he says. "Yes, I know you're the one who shot me. I also know you were set up, I just don't know why, yet." Gabriel tries to come off as non-threatening as he could, and he takes the time to look over the man in front of him. Dobson is relatively young, twenty-nine, possibly thirty years old. Tattoos peaked out from the cuffs of the bomber jacket and some reached around his neck. But Dobson had sad, puffy eyes as he stares Gabriel down.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Gabriel tells him, leaving out that it was his original plan. "I know you spent some time in jail, but I know the last thing on your mind tonight was to go out and hurt someone. I just need to know why. Otherwise you wouldn't throw everything that represents," Gabriel motions over to the play set, "away."
Slowly, Dobson lowers the bat. "He said they will die if I didn't do it," he tells Gabriel.
"Who told you this?"
Dobson shrugs, "I've no clue. I got a phone call a few nights ago, saying my daughter and her mother will die if I didn't do what he said. As soon as he hung up, an envelope was slid under the door. There were Polaroids of them, bound and gagged and beaten, and I couldn't go to the police! The next day, there was a picture of you and instructions of where to wait for you."
"Do you still have the letter?" Gabriel asks, and Dobson says it is all in the drawer in the table stand. Holding the letter and the picture in his hands, Gabriel closes his eyes and concentrates. "I picked my family over a stranger," he hears Dobson sob, "I'm so sorry!"
Gabriel looks up at the other man, eyes full of empathy and sorrow. "It wouldn't have mattered; your family was already dead when this letter was written. You were set up by my father," Gabriel explains, "and he had no intention of leaving witnesses, including you."
"What?"
"Grab your things, you're coming with me," Gabriel says, gently pushing Dobson towards his room.
~*~
"I think he's slipping, Mom," Claire says. It is a little after noon, but Claire is wrapped in her fluffy robe and hair wet. She curled herself onto the living room couch, back facing Sandra as she brushes Claire's hair. Upstairs, Jessie and Cathy take turns at the shower and allow themselves to rest in Claire's bedroom to sleep off the drama of happened just only over twelve hours before. "I looked into his eyes and I didn't see Gabriel. I couldn't follow him because, if he didn't want someone following him….God, I'm just so tired!"
"I'm sure everything will be ok, sweetie," Sandra soothes, putting the brush down and wrapping her arms around her daughter. A moment later, they hear the front door open, and see Gabriel peak into the living room.
"Hello, Claire," he says, never feeling so tired as he did at that moment, more so than when he regained his memories. But Claire does not move from her spot on the couch and continues to glare hard at Gabriel.
The look does not go unnoticed, "Don't give me that look," he pleads. He looks over his shoulder and lowers his voice. "He's fine, I didn't kill him. He was set up," he explains. Claire's eyes widen.
"Set up?"
He nods, "A hired-hit man to take me out by my father. Clearly he doesn't know the extent of my abilities. He figured the shot to the head would take me out for good.
"He killed the man's family, with the intent to finish him off when the job was done," Gabriel says. "He had no where else to go."
Claire sniffs back a tear, "It'll be fine, and we will work something out."
Gabriel is filled with relief. He steps back to the foyer, "It's okay, I want you to meet someone!"
From the foyer, a young man steps into the living room. "Hello," Michael Dobson introduces himself. He sets down the duffle he was carrying onto the floor and reaches inside it. "This belongs to you," he says, handing Claire her clutch purse.
"Thank you," Claire replies, apprehensively. Sensing the tension, Sandra guides Dobson to the kitchen, leaving Claire and Gabriel alone.
"What happened this morning?" Claire wants to know, not giving Gabriel the chance to say or do anything else. Gabriel senses this, but answers her question. It seems like an eternity, but afterwards, Claire sits herself back onto the couch, staring aimlessly out the window. "Had you not flashed on his things at the apartment, would you have killed him on the spot?"
Without missing a beat, Gabriel answers, "Yes." When Claire looks at him, Gabriel lets out a sigh of frustration and paces a bit before facing her. "I wish I could say I'm sorry for thinking that, but I'm not. I could've done him in anyways, but I chose to do the right thing instead. Instead I chose to bring a man scared out of his wits because the man he murdered in cold blood came back from the dead, only to realize that the guy who ordered the hit was planning on killing him anyways."
Gabriel gets to his knees, and takes Claire's hands into his own, and asks with pleading eyes, "Claire, I understand what you're thinking. We've spent months trying to separate Sylar and Gabriel, but Sylar is just a part of who I am now. But he's not in control. So I'm going ask this, can you still trust me?"
Without missing a beat on her part, "With my whole being," she replies. Claire looks over Gabriel's shoulder and sees her mother standing at the edge of the room.
"I gave Michael some money for a motel," Sandra explains. "He needs some time to go over everything he's been told."
"You think he'll be ok?" Gabriel wonders.
"I believe so. Motels aren't likely to ask for ID when paying cash," Sandra says. "Noah will be flying in this evening, along with Peter. Your father's been worried when he couldn't get a hold of you two."
"Have they found anything?" Gabriel asks.
"I think so, but they didn't want to say anything over the phone."
Sandra leaves them again, and Gabriel nestles his head on Claire's lap. "Have you been able to sleep at all since you got back?" he asks, the soft touch of Claire's fingers combing through his hair almost lulling him to sleep.
"No, we just got back a few hours ago. Even so," she says, "I was too busy wondering if you were ok or not."
A chill tingles down Gabriel's spine and he raises his head with a grimace on his tired face. "You were worried if I was about to start killing again, even if it was out of retribution."
Claire looks away, guilty. But Gabriel only reaches over to gently make Claire look at him, and she sees the Gabriel she imagines spending forever with. Silently, he picks Claire up in his arms and carries her up the stairs. Peaking in Claire's room and seeing her friends sleeping soundly, Gabriel takes Claire to her mother's master bedroom. He uses his TK to pull back the sheets, and he slowly lays Claire on Sandra's bed. Using his hands, Gabriel pulls the sheets and securely tucks them around Claire before settling beside her.
Claire tucks herself in Gabriel's arms, lacing her fingers with his. "Gabriel?" Claire says, tentatively.
"You believe me when I say I trust you?"
"Mm-hmm."
"And that I want to spend forever with you?"
"Hmmm?" Gabriel pulls away from Claire a bit. "What are you trying to tell me?"
"I trust you with my whole being, but I cannot help but be afraid of you. Of what you can do," such brutal honesty, and Claire resettles herself in Gabriel's arms, completely missing his grimace.
"I may know when people lying, but you're not obligated to speak every truth that enters your head," Gabriel says, lightly.
"I know," she replies just as lightly.
Gabriel tilts Claire's chin up, and brushes a light kiss on her lips. "You have nothing to fear," he whispers against Claire's lips, "I'm still here with you, always will be."
A/N: dundun DUN! God im such a romantic
Until next time, farewell and good night