Chapter 11: Hold On Tight

Having made sure Samuel was dragged away powerless to prison, Peter ran towards the tent Emma was leading him back to. Evidently he had to take on the carnival leader as his mother's ability suggested it was Sylar who had to rescue his data archivist girlfriend, but he felt very guilty having left a not even hour old baby and mother in tow of the reformed killer. It was Doyle he saw first, tangled up in wires and quite obviously for the trained eye, being slid forward telekinetically.

"What do you want with him?" Sylar asked for his friend's opinion, stepping up close to him in a confidential fashion.

Peter's eyes searched round, unconsciously taking one final look to make sure everything was all right and the situation had calmed down so that his frazzled nerves could relax too. In doing so, he had caught a glimpse of Noah Bennet starting to walk away from another job finished. The agent was weary, tired and dispassionate. His work was never finished despite the fact he did not even get paid for it anymore.

Catching his eyes for a fleeting second, the older man nodded in silent acknowledgement of Peter's major involvement in the showdown, something he had neither expected or was surprised about either. It was always a certain number of people against the dangerous mutants like a secret sworn society that had only one, but an extremely important goal in common.

Noah paused in his tracks though, confusion marring his forehead. It was quite dark, still, he could never miss Sylar's figure, standing shoulder to shoulder with Peter at a small angle, in a way it was impossible for the Petrelli not to know that the killer was standing right beside him. And as if the two were not a queer sight enough, the little group to the side of them dazed him just the same. Claire holding a tiny baby wrapped in a towel, and a woman he did not remember leaning in smiling to look at the little one. The whole picture was wrong. It wasn't only Claire's presence, who had nothing to do with the carnival of late to his knowledge, or the fact that she was holding a child, but more so the proud expression she had on her face when showing the infant to the other woman. Claire should not be so interested in children, he huffed irritably.

Sylar stepped one back towards her when he noticed the old company man taking off in their direction and Peter followed him, all gathering around the child as if they would've been trying to subconsciously protect it from something or someone. Noah didn't assume it was him, his focus shifted back to Sylar and on what could he have been doing amongst them.

The whole group was waiting for him uneasily, apart from maybe Emma, who was sensing some tension, but was not aware of the approaching man's identity. Claire slowly pushed herself forward in between the rest. She knew it was her who would be under fire anyway when her father found out the state of affairs. She'd been imagining this moment so many times in so many ways, psyching herself up for the occasion, yet when it came right down to it she could not remember all her prepared sentences, only just the beginning of her speech, "dad. I want you to meet your grandson. We named him after you," she smiled at the babe in her arms despite the oddness of the situation, not admitting that she wanted her son to be called Noah partly as a mitigating strategy.

Noah blinked behind his glasses. Not many things would render him speechless in this world, even for a fraction of a second. His mind was computating possibilities and he hadn't come up with a very good one. Claire had been away at college, but not for that many weeks at a time, and more to the point, she would not keep such a thing from him. "What are you talking about? You can't just decide to randomly adopt carnival children. Who knows what kinda ability they'll grow up to possess?"

Sylar paled a little at his words, but Claire had other issues on her mind at the moment, "no, he is my flesh and blood," which was more than Noah could say about her, not that she was complaining about her shielded childhood.

The petite blonde looked at Peter for his help, who promptly came with his argument, "I delivered the baby not much more than an hour ago myself. I can guarantee you, he is Claire's."

Noah turned towards the Petrelli swiftly in an antagonistic, irritated manner. However, he did not dispute his words, "its her regenerative ability, isn't it? It sped up the process, development was extra fast." He has seen things like that before with specials.

"No, dad," Claire thought she should be the one that explained it to him, "it's a long story, but put it short, me, Peter and Sylar got stuck in a sort of an alternate universe and spent years there. We're barely back to find hardly any time has passed in this one."

Noah's jaw tightened as he regarded the three, looking for any sign, hope, that it wasn't so. Peter looked away pained, Claire was embarrassed, but defiant as ever, Sylar held his gaze unwavering, on the mocking side as usual. Nothing of the sort the company man was hoping for. "You bastard!" Noah raised the company gun he still possessed and always had handy and emptied all bullets into the serial killer's torso at close range. The fact that Sylar could stop him with ease or any other consequences did not bother him. Noah was angry, fuming and enraged and whatever little paying he could get out of Sylar right now, he would settle for it as starters. It was the worse yet his former partner has done, mistreating Claire in such a way, the details of which he would never wish to know.

Sylar, however, made no attempt to stop the projectiles. Having not used his abilities for years, he was not sure if he'd not be a bit rusty at precise manoeuvres. It was best not to take chances with flying bullets with little Noah so close. He would have simply let all of them penetrate his body, but Peter didn't agree. Possessing his telekinesis at the moment, he halted the last two bullet, in spite of the fact that the rest of them would've already made his friend fall backwards and temporarily out of the game as Noah's first two shots did not miss his heart, just as intended.

Claire's foremost thought was with the child. She initially shielded her boy with her body and then when she was sure Peter was in control of the situation, she handed Noah over to the older Emma she had heard pretty much everything about in their own world she actually missed right now, and rushed to kneel next to Sylar, opening his jacket and shirt. It had been such a long time since she'd seen regeneration in action that she wanted to make sure and see that it was happening with her own eyes.

"It's Doyle we'd like you to handle, not Sylar," Peter went with his original thought regarding the puppet master. What Noah made sure would be portioned out for Doyle, was probably the appropriate sentence for him.

Noah glanced in the tied up prisoner's direction for a millisecond while reloading his gun again and training it in Sylar's direction, "I have other concerns, if you don't mind," he kept his eyes on his target, "to some extent I'd understand if you'd like to protect your brother's memories that had been unfortunately transferred inside him, but its certainly not worth keeping a threat like Sylar keeping alive for, you should know that!" He fired another batch of bullets into the stirring man to make sure he remained still till he could deal with the nonsense that was coming from the direction of the ever so soft Petrelli.

Nothing much fazed Noah and yet he paused in confusion, lowering his gun in his bewilderment. Why had Claire thrown herself over his target and caught some of the bullets in her shoulder, was beyond him, but he was not going to shoot his own daughter. It shocked him into a realisation. With Claire's habitual hatred of Sylar, there had to be a well established and sound reason for her protecting her boogey man. Has Sylar perhaps acquired mind control?

And manifestly, why Claire made sure she was still in the line of fire and was unbuttoning his shirt to see the damage, was if possible, more of a mystery to Sylar than it was for Noah, despite their years spent together in the world fashioned by Parkman. Spluttering blood and struggling with a cough that tore at his half knit lungs, he tried to push her off weakly, not managing to form intelligible words even now given that Noah knew how to hit vital organs pretty well.

"Are you all right? Are you healing?" Claire ran her hands over some of his wounds, not entirely sure in the relative darkness if she was seeing well.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Sylar raised himself on an elbow to demonstrate and spat some bullets out.

"I dunno," Claire fussed over him, helping him turn to his side, "I got unused to it I guess. I hated it so much when you were ill for a long time," her hand trailed down his chest in between the open shirt and to his stomach, where she could see no surgery scars anymore. It brought her to her senses and thankful they were back in the real world. With her dad, she will have to deal later, she was sure the older man needed time. Perhaps a lot of time. "How about we fly?" She suggested, looking at Peter, rather than Sylar.

Peter's eyes gave a visible little spark in joyfulness and anticipation. Flying he had missed and not only because that was Nathan's ability. He gave a hand to the fallen man to help him up, making the power transfer at the same time, then moved to hold Emma. Sylar gathered up his family and they all levitated upwards.

"Claire!" Noah snapped out of his shock at his daughter's display of affection towards the killer. It did not seem forced, orchestrated or false in any way as much as it was possible to tell, "wait. This is breaking my heart. Hear me out. Come with me, Claire, just you and me, so we can make sense of what's been happening to you together. Wouldn't that be nice? I could do with some bridge building," he tried to get through to her, whatever the situation was.

"I remember our bridge dad," Claire assured, although from above ground and Sylar's arms, "the pillar on my side is not shaky, believe me. I promise I'll come and explain everything. But not now. You need to talk to Matt Parkman first, that might help…" Was the last thing Noah could hear as they flew out of earshot. Claire continued to her companions, "and we need to figure out where and how we live."

"My apartment's has a big enough living room till you find a place or decide what you do," Peter offered, smiling as Emma's body pressed to him. Unlike Sylar and Claire, he had a lot to catch up on.

"Thank you, Peter. I think your living room might just suffice for all three of us for a little while," Claire cuddled her son to herself, loosing herself in his father's adoring eyes. Noah was a big test as Sylar saw it, and she had passed it.

The End.