November - December 2006; location unknown

[watchmakers_son]

There's nothing remarkable about this room, nor anything inside of it.

It's a perfect square lit in sickly yellow and off-white tones, the walls irregularly patterned from years of repainting. One of the fluorescent lights strobes every so often; when it doesn't, it buzzes, almost subaudibly, like a distant insect's whine. The single bed in the corner has a thin mattress and thinner sheets, and medical equipment -- all of it small and carefully cased and free of exposed wires -- arrays around it, holding sentinel.

The shoes by the bedside are the same dingy white shade as the walls. They have no shoelaces.

The window's crisscrossed with thick bars.

On the bed, Sylar makes a small noise -- something between pain and grogginess -- and cracks open his eyes.

Comments

[shimmershift.livejournal.com]

"You've had a very mild cardiovascular incident, Mr. Gray," the nurse tells him gently. She runs her fingers up and down Sylar's knuckles in some attempt at comfort. "But, you're are all right now. You have to be careful not to overexert yourself again."

[simon_doctor]

"Try to relax," says Simon's voice, gently.

He comes up to stand behind the nurse, looking down at Sylar with a small smile.

"You gave us all quite a scare back there."

[watchmakers_son]

His wrists are still tied down. Sylar can't move his hand away when the nurse touches it.

"You said that before," he mumbles, dazed, forcing his eyes up to Simon's. "Earlier." A sickening clench to his stomach. "Didn't you?"

[simon_doctor]

The doctor and the nurse exchange glances, and he gives a very small but firm headshake.

"You need to rest, Gabriel."

[watchmakers_son]

"No."

Sylar can feel the haze creeping up like cold tendrils; he struggles against it, but the pull downward is steady, firm, and as inexorable as...

Nothing is truly inexorable, is it.

(But that matters little when he's sinking this fast.)

With one last push, Sylar forms the words: "Tell me..."





The room splits into doubles, quadruples, more, fading, and then there's nothing but black.