Isaac's loft, November 7th

[watchmakers_son]

[From here.]

Take your hand. Tighten it into a fist, as hard as you can. Hold it.

Keep holding it.

Hold it even as the muscles seize up, fingertips starting to tingle from lack of blood, cramps spreading down your entire arm and into your shoulder; hold it without the slightest change in pressure, knowing that if you let go -- even for a second -- you might bleed to death.

Add in the searing pain from the wound itself every time he moves or so much as breathes, and it may be understandable why Sylar's progress through the bar is labored at best.

He's several feet from the front door when a loud clatter catches his attention; he turns his head, watching Kaylee slam open the lake door with a gurney in tow.

He's still watching when the white-haired doctor sprints into the infirmary.

Comments

[watchmakers_son]

"Just finish your work," he mutters, still glaring as he moves his hand away from the stomach wound. Sylar returns his attention to the ceiling soon after.

[bannion_sight]

Kim manages not to sigh or roll her eyes. Briskly, she turns back the blanket and the sheet, then reaches for the gauze she'd found and the clean strips torn from a second sheet.

It doesn't take long.

"There."

[watchmakers_son]

As Kim moves away, Sylar, very carefully, begins working to ease himself upright. It happens in fits and starts as the continued pain -- and the need to catch his breath -- halts him every few seconds.

When he's done, he pauses for a moment with both hands flat against the blanket, arms shifting unsteadily as his head swims.

And then he meets Kim's eyes, all semblance of the earlier daze gone.

[bannion_sight]

She doesn't even try to kid herself-- she's in very real danger here, and Kim knows it, just as she knows that it would be a mistake to show fear or uncertainty.

"You'll need to have your stitches out in ... call it seven to ten days, if you're healing well," Kim says casually.

"Should I expect to see you back at Milliways then?"

[watchmakers_son]

"I doubt it."

Sylar tips his head to one side, utterly calm and just as casual. He does not glance at the mural on the floor of the loft.

[bannion_sight]

She keeps her breathing steady and her tone just as matter-of-fact as before, but she can't help the racing of her own heartbeat as the familiar cold feel of fear spreads through her.

Kim's fairly certain it wouldn't be a good idea to ask the first question that flashes through her mind.

Are you going to kill me?

Instead, she says,

"Well, okay. That's your decision."

A beat.

"But if you wouldn't mind, I'd really like to go back now."

[watchmakers_son]

This is more familiar, and far more steadying than anything else could be. Slowly, Sylar brings his legs up, partly to judge his range of motion, partly to try moving them off of the bed.

"Why would I do that?" he asks. It sounds honestly curious, and the slightest bit amused.

[bannion_sight]

Without looking away from him, Kim waves a hand out toward the rest of the loft.

"Maybe because it's likely to be a little crowded otherwise?"

[watchmakers_son]

Eyes narrowing in scrutiny, Sylar replies, "With only two."

Absently, his hands tighten on the blanket again.

"Or." Thoughtful. "Are there three?"

[bannion_sight]

She's the one in shock now, shocked into stillness. Everything around her seems to have grown suddenly distant, suddenly dim, as she stares at him, into him.

"You -- how do you know? How do you know that?"

[watchmakers_son]

"I can see it."

A steady, muffled tap, tap, tap begins against the blanket as Sylar smiles: weak, still several shades too pale, but fully and unmistakably aware. "Like double vision. Looking with your eyes crossed.

"And what would cause that, I wonder?"

[bannion_sight]

Kim's nearly as white as her hair, now.

I can see it. Double vision.

She knows what he means-- how can she not? She's the one who now bears Ysanne's soul, Ysanne's desperate gift, as an otherworldly twin to her own, after all. Kim knows, even if Sylar doesn't, or not exactly-- because there's something there, something more to him. That much she can tell, now that she's looking-- the same way she'd been aware of the strangeness to the paintings, the way Ysanne had recognized her in the court at Paras Derval in Brennin, in Fionavar.

I am a Seer. The dreamer of the dream.

But in the end it doesn't matter, not really, not in this, and when she answers him there's no give in her, no uncertainty.

"No." Kim raises her chin, looking flatly back at him. "If you can see that much, then fine, so be it, but this is as deep as you go."

[watchmakers_son]

"What would you do to stop me, if I wanted?"

[bannion_sight]

"That's not how -- I don't --"

He eats brains, Hiro had said. A beat of silence, and then Kim bursts out,

"Why are you doing this? Why? I helped you!"

[watchmakers_son]

"You did, yes," he agrees placidly.

Once a tool serves its purpose, though, it is put away. There is also --

"But you're not something I expected to see here." Sylar splays his fingers wider against the blanket. "Outside of the bar."

[bannion_sight]

"I didn't exactly expect to be here," she quips, dryly.

(It's a little like whistling in the dark.)

[watchmakers_son]

He shakes his head, stopping midway through the motion as his mouth tightens in a grimace. Sylar lightly presses his fingertips over one temple and starts to move them in small, cautious circles.

"Time stops," he explains, distracted. "The dead walk. You'd never think it to look at any of them."

[bannion_sight]

Silence, for a second, and then--

"I know," Kim says, simply. She's watching him, but there's a hint of something that might be understanding in her expression now.

"It's hard to get used to."

(And for the first time, she wonders: what would her life have been, had she not known Fionavar before she'd encountered Milliways?)

[watchmakers_son]

Another faint, vacant smile. "I did get used to it. I found a way. And you -- "

His hand falls.

"Almost sound like they did."

[bannion_sight]

"It's a long story."

She's nervous still, how can she not be? The way he's looking at her-- You're not something I expected to see here, he'd said. Something, not someone, and she's smart enough to know that's not a good sign. He's dangerous, and she's nowhere near safe.

And yet, she's faced other men (and powers who might be called more than mere men) and other situations easily as dangerous, and survived, and whatever else she may be, Kim Ford's never been the sort of person to just back away.

"Do you want to hear it?"

[watchmakers_son]

His eyebrows draw together, just slightly, then relax again before lifts his chin a quarter of an inch.

"Of course."

[bannion_sight]

"Then I'll tell you."

I wonder if this is how Scheherazade felt?

Kim takes one cautious step toward the man sitting on the bed watching her, the kidnapper who's the only one she knows in this world who can open the door that will get her back home, and tries a smile.

"But as I said, it's a long story. And I'm afraid you're not-- you're still hurt, and you should be resting. I can tell you over coffee the next time I see you at the bar, though."

[watchmakers_son]

Sylar scoffs at that, as one side of his mouth tilts into a half smirk.

"Didn't I just say," he asks, straightening up further, "that I don't think we'll be seeing each other in Milliways again?"

[bannion_sight]

"You said you didn't think you'd -- "

She bites off the protest and shakes her head, and her gaze doesn't leave his.

"... you mean at all. Ever."

Kim takes a slow, careful breath.

"Why? Because of the fight?"

[watchmakers_son]

"Please," he sneers. "I have more important concerns than running into that one again."

Sylar angles his head again, this time to indicate the paintings; the gigantic explosion billowing across the floor.