Starring:
Summary:
Molly and Claire have some girl bonding time, which ends them searching for Peter's whereabouts. Hiro drops by to thank Claire for saving his life and ends up talking about penguins and Wolverine with Molly.
Finding What Was Lost
Petrelli Mansion
While she's mostly being looked after by Matt and Mohinder, there are times when they both have other things to do. And they're not about to leave her at home alone with just clueless Kitty. So, once in awhile she finds herself in the expansive Manhattan mansion that is la casa de Petrelli. It's a little daunting, but she's sort of made herself her own little space in the sitting room. She's got her stuffed elephant that Mohinder gave her and her atlas. Right now she's sitting by one of the coffee tables with paper and crayons, doodling.
It's days like this when Claire is thankful for the company; there's only so much time she can spend surrounded by adults who keep checking her shadow to make sure no one's following her. Of course, even when she descends the staircase and turns down the hallway towards the kitchen, and she /feels/ alone? She knows she isn't. It isn't until a few minutes later, when she's headed back down the hallway towards the stairs, that she takes note of Molly in the sitting room. "Heeey, Molly," she says with a smile (brighter than the last few days, honestly), approaching the girl with a plate of cookies in one hand and a glass of chocolate milk in the other. "Whatcha' drawing?"
Molly looks up from her drawing and smiles at Claire. "Hi Claire." She wriggles until she's sitting up straighter and with her legs crossed as opposed to tuck underneath her. Her eyes automatically go for the cookies and the chocolate milk. It's the kind of thing that ever little girl cannot help but hone in on. The drawing is kind of dark, really. Mostly just gold Symbols dotting, she was the in the middle of shading the background black when Claire came back in. There's a tiny pair of eyes drawn in one of the corners. "Oh, nothing," she shrugs it off. "Can I have a cookie?"
"Whoa. Kinda crazy, huh?" Gesturing with the glass to the drawing Molly's working on, Claire lowers herself down to sit next to the girl, offering her a swift smile. She doesn't seem off-put by the drawing, but it's clear that she doesn't quite know what to make of it. "Of course you can have a cookie." The plate is set down on the table - a huge no-no should Angela see them, but she's practically under house arrest, so Claire does not care at all - within reach of Molly's little hands. "Looks like you're stuck with me today. Could be worse, right? You COULD be stuck with spooky old Angela."
Molly looks down at the drawing and shrugs again. "I guess so." It's kind of like she doesn't even know what she's drawing. It's quite possible that's true what with her powers of seeing. Or something. However, any sort of neutral expression melts away at the prospect of cookies. Now she's grinning and snatching one from the plate. "Thanks!" Mohinder has been quite stern about the whole manners thing. "I'm okay with that." She lowers her voice so that only Claire can hear it. Just in case there are /spies/. "Mrs. Petrelli kind of scares me. I don't think she smiles."
"She scares me, too," Claire replies with a conspiratorial smirk, lowering her own voice in kind - not because she's afraid of spies, but because she'd like to make the girl feel more secure. "Oh, she smiles. Just not for /us/." But if Peter were to walk through that door right now? She doesn't say it; if anything were likely to call Angela out, it's uttering the name of her beloved younger son. "Do you draw anything else? Animals, people, flowers?"
Molly grins back at Claire, devouring her cookie at a fast pace. It's not like she's hungry, it's just that it's a cookie. And it's good. Leaning in, she enjoys actually talking to someone somewhat close to her age that knows what she's going through. The kids at school don't count. "Does her face crack when she does?" She knows she's not being nice, but Angela Petrelli is a formidable and scary woman. This is the best way she knows how to handle that. As for the drawings, she shrugs again and picks up the half finished drawing, shoving it in between the pages of her beloved atlas. "I /can/. It's just that when I try, all I seem to get are /those/ drawings."
Claire doesn't seem to mind when Molly says rather unkind things about Angela Petrelli. It's a childish kind of grudge that she's holding onto, really, since Angela has been paramount in keeping her safe a few times now. Still, her response to Molly is through a quiet snicker as she says, "It didn't crack, but it /almost/ killed her to do it." She reaches out to take a sheet of paper for herself, picking up a blue crayon. "Well, maybe it'll help to be with someone else. We could try drawing something different." She takes a cookie for herself, smiling at the girl as she takes a bite.
Molly snatches another cookie and pulls over a blank sheet of paper for herself. She giggles a little, thinking about that image. While she really should be more polite while she's a guest in this woman's home, she can't help it. Forsaking the dark colors of her previous picture, she goes for a nice bright pink crayon. "I think so. Whenever I draw alone, I just kind of draw without really thinking about it." She doesn't really want to go into the creepiness of the eyes or the symbols, but she can talk about the /process/ without it relating to the finished product. She's idly drawing a pink flower for a few moments before she speaks again. When she does, she doesn't look up. "So you can heal people?"
"That's not really how it works," Claire explains, switching to a new crayon after a few minutes. A different colour for her absent-minded doodle. "/I/ can heal. I can get hurt, but my body heals itself. And now I guess if you inject my blood into someone else, it can heal them, too. It's not really like I'm healing them, though. My blood is just doing what it's supposed to, I think. It fixes things." The drawing on her own paper is something fish-like; it's only half-finished, but it could be a mermaid. …Claire's not really a very good artist.
Molly isn't really all that great at drawing, either. It's fairly typical 11 year old doodles, really. Especially when she's attempting to do something happy and normal. "I like that one," she nods, finally stealing a glance at Claire before grabbing one more cookie for herself. While she munches, she takes a yellow crayon for a big yellow sun. "Blood being able to fix things. I wish mine did that." She considers it much more helpful than just being able to find people.
"Nooo, you don't," Claire replies with a shake of her head, her eyes widening a bit in that 'trust me, I'm really super serious' kind of way. "I can't even get a papercut in class without everyone thinking I'm some kind of freak. And finding people--" She casts a smile Molly's way, her expression warm. "--you're the whole reason my dad found me. You're going to help us find Peter, too, right?" There's a light in her eyes then, something very hopeful about the way she looks to the little girl.
Molly's face turns into a slight frown. "Yeah, but you can help people. Like you did with Hiro." She glances down at the paper they're drawing on at the mention of the paper cut before looking back up at Claire. "I like knowing where people are," she agrees slowly. "But soon everyone only wants me to find people for them. Or they think that I'm too dangerous." It's impossible for her to forget Claire's father yelling that at Mohinder, while pointing a gun at them. She can't look at the cheerleader when she says that, knowing that she's talking about the girl's father. Instead, she twirls the crayon around in her fingers awkwardly. The subject of Peter makes the subject change slightly and she can look up again. "I'm going to try." Glancing over at the atlas, a smile grows on her face. "We could try now."
Claire, too, seems to recognize that Molly's speaking of her father, and it elicits a hint of a frown that only lasts a split second. Molly needn't have worried about meeting her gaze; the older girl's eyes drop to the table, too, and she focuses on her mediocre drawing for a few seconds. …until Molly says they could try now. Her attention snaps back from the table, a mischievous grin breaking across her face. "Really?" Pause. Pause… "Let's do it."
Molly doesn't catch that Claire knows who exactly it is that think she's too dangerous to live. But, that whole awkwardness is lifted once the two have decided to this little bit of investigative work. It's a little like they're doing something they're not supposed to and that kind of appeals to Molly. "I just need a picture." She hasn't quite connected Peter to being the exploding man from Kirby Plaza yet. There are tons of family photos in the sitting room and Molly dashes over to snatch one up. This particular one is one of Nathan and Peter. She knows Nathan already, of course, but when she studies the other boy, her eyes widen. "This is the glowing man!" She flips the photo around so that Claire can see it. "Peter's the glowing man?"
That's certainly touching on unpleasant things, and Claire offers Molly a faintly apologetic smile as she ducks her head. "That's him," she says, accompanied by a swift nod. "That's Peter." Her drawing entirely forgotten now, she sits up a bit straighter, curling both hands around her glass as she regards Molly with a level stare. "We're really going to find him," she realizes aloud, her tone clearly disbelieving. It's not a question. A little voice in her brain reminds her that he is not, in fact, guaranteed to be alive, but she doesn't add such a pessimistic condition. Molly's a kid.
Hiro Nakamura gets himself shown in through the front door. Well, he appears in the doorway, steps outside, buzzes the guard, and *then* gets himself in. He is alive and ticking, and he is carrying a big black cylinder. A /very/ big black cylinder, in fact, even bigger than the one that carried the Kensei Sword previously. "Hello? Mr. Petrelli? Mr. Petrelli?"
"Peter." Molly's learning all these names of people she's thought about so often, but didn't have the proper nouns to call them. Carefully, the girl replaces the picture of Nathan and Peter where she found it. She doesn't want the wrath of Angela to come down upon her for rearranging her pictures slightly the wrong way. Now that she has a clear image of him in her head, it'll be easy. "We are!" Molly reassures in her chipper tone. There's only one person she's never been able to find - or wouldn't want to find - but she doesn't want to talk about that. Settling back down, she opens up her atlas and picks up a crayon. It's not a pushpin, but it will do.
Once Molly closes her eyes, she focuses on Peter. She's actually met him, so it's easier for her to bring up his image and from there start to pinpoint where he is exactly. Once again, the pages flip purposefully to New York State, New York City and then stays on that page. It's only a matter of moments before the tip of the bright pink crayon rests right on Kirby Plaza.
There are several conflicting things happening at once now, and the first thing Claire reacts to is the visitor. She doesn't want to leave Molly mid-search, but Hiro is standing there in the entryway waiting. Rising to her feet, the teenager calls out, "Hiro?" That voice is certainly surprising. She makes her way back towards the foyer quickly, waving a hand for Hiro to step inside. "Hey! Um— just a second." She offers him an apologetic look before scurrying back into the sitting room, stooping over Molly's shoulder to peer at the map. "… are you SERIOUS?"
"… Eh?" Hiro starts, emerging into the foyer as he steps inside. "Claire," he says, and immediately bows pretty low. "Thank you. This time, the cheerleader saved—" He had his speech practiced in his head. But, what's going on… here? "Um. What are you so excited about?"
Molly opens her eyes, only a few moments before Claire's cry. Though she found the building, she kept searching to see where /specifically/ he'd be inside since this seems important to her new friend. This place is one that she knows quite well, having lived there for a couple months with the Company so it was relatively quick work. "Yes," she replies, a little put out. "Why doesn't anyone believe me any more?" Though her lower lip is pushed out a little, she recovers, mostly. "He's in the basement," she adds. Because it's one thing to tell Claire he's in Kirby Plaza - it's a couple of dozen floors high - it's quite another to tell her /exactly/ where he is. Then, Hiro enters and she beams at him. "Hiro! We were just finding Peter Petrelli!"
Claire isn't big on gratitude. It's a good thing that Molly was there to distract her, because every time she looks at Hiro, she remembers him lying on the bed upstairs, dead. And she remembers why he's alive now. It makes for an awkward situation when one is a somewhat reluctant hero. She ducks her head, offering Hiro a strange, knowing smile… that's broken when Molly starts speaking. "Oh, I believe you. It's just… I was /there/." Sounding familiar? Evidently, it's a family thing. Bennet Bad Timing! Still, the grin she gives Molly is bright. Optimistic. "Peter's alive," she says, testing the words out to see how they sound.
"Peter Petrelli is alive?!" Hiro's expression lights up like a megawatt bulb. "I knew he would be okay! He is at Kirby Plaza?" He sounds just a little bit baffled. "I will go back. I will rescue him. And anyone else I find. I was considering a breakout. … The Great Escape," Hiro says, cheerfully, approaching the map and looking right down at it. "I promised Nathan Petrelli I would rescue his brother. I promised I would save Peter Petrelli."
The pink crayon is still pointing right at Kirby Plaza; Molly hasn't moved it yet. She gives Claire a puzzled look when she says that. "That's just what Mr. Bennett said about you." It /is/ a Bennett thing, apparently. "Was…was he supposed to not be?" She never got that memo. She's been happily ensconced in a non-dead Peter world. At Hiro's happy talk about saving Peter and the others at Kirby Plaza, the girl jumps up. "He's there! In the basement. It kind of looked like a hospital room. But not as nice as the one I was in when I was there."
There's gratitude in Claire's expression when she turns to face Hiro, her smile bright. Her disposition is visibly cheered by this development. "We have to tell Nathan," she decides aloud, her own tone surprised, as if she had only just thought of this. "He'll want to know." And then maybe he can stop being such an emo baby hiding out upstairs all the time. "I'm going to get him." Before anyone can protest, she's left the sitting room and is en route to the staircase, barely - just barely - below jogging speed.
Hiro is left with Molly, to whom he looks directly at. He smiels, again. "Peter Petrelli is a hero. We thought he died. He did not. Peter Petrelli saved the cheerleader, so that we could save the world. Now he needs us to save him. And we will. I promised. Thank you."
When Claire goes jogging out of the room, Molly's smile is just as big. She's glad that this all worked out right. Though she had no idea when she started that anyone had any doubts about this. Now to just wait until Nathan knows. Alone in the room with Hiro, Molly turns to face him, still glowing from everyone being so happy. "You don't have to thank me, Hiro. You saved me. And Claire's been so nice to me. I like helping. And I want to help save him, too!" Now she's getting wrapped up in the whole hero business.
Hiro crouches a little bit to prop himself at eye level with Molly. "You will. And you have. You are very brave," he adds, as though the clarity was necessary. His lips wrinkle. "I went to Hartsdale, to look for my friend Kellie. She was there. She is not anymore. I do not think she wants to be found. … but… thank you," he says, before he keeps thinking. "Molly? Do you think you can find Sylar?"
Molly beams at Hiro. Him telling her she's brave means a lot coming from him. When he explains the situation with Kellie, the brightness lowers itself a couple of notches. "Do you want me to find her again? I can if you need me to." Once again, blushes just a little at all the thanks. It's just what she can do. But the color drains from her face when Hiro asks about Sylar. "I don't like to think about him," she replies softly. After all, it forces her to focus on her boogieman. After a short pause, she adds, "But I can find him if you want me to."
Hiro shakes his head. "No," he adds. "I will find Sylar. If not, you can save me. Until then… we will see," he remarks. "And I'll keep the boogeyman away." He stops to think, and while doing so, he actually sits down cross-legged on the floor of the mansion, resting his sword on the floor beside him. Hopefully, the cleaning crew doesn't see him. "I think my friend Kellie wants to be left alone for awhile. I just want to know she's safe."
Molly grins at being told that she may be the one to save Hiro. She doubts it, really, but it's nice to know that he has confidence in her. When he sits down cross-legged on the floor, Molly copies him. Though she doesn't have a sword to put next to her. "Well, I can see if I can find her. As long as I can see her, we'll know she's alright." Experiments with trying to find her parents after Sylar came taught her the limits of her powers.
Hiro nods and sits with Molly, leaning over to look down at her little atlas. He begins to realize how amazing her power is. He sort of gasps a little. "Wow! Can you really find *anybody* in the whole world? That's amazing. Can you find Hugh Jackman? He is Wolverine."
Pulling her atlas over to her, Molly grins at Hiro. Finally, something that she's really good at. "I can! Anybody." It's not that she's smug, but she's proud to be able to do this for her friends and heroes. It feels like the only thing she really can do to help. Closing her eyes, she thinks about Hugh Jackman. It doesn't take too long, the pages flip to Australia and she points right at Sydney. "He's right…here." Opening her eyes, she moves the atlas over so Hiro can see. It's not really exciting - just a spot on a map - but she found it! "Anyone else?" She can do this for hours.
Hiro looks over his shoulder. And then the other shoulder. Nobody else is around. Good. Okay. He leans forward and whispers in a low voice to Molly. "… Can you find…" He pauses, again, somewhat nervously. "Elvis?"
Molly looks over Hiro's two shoulders while he's making sure no one is listening. Just for good measure, she looks over her own shoulders. Nope, no one there. When Hiro asks his question, though, she makes a face at him. The smile quickly returns. "I can't find him! He's dead."
Hiro looks disappointed. "Oh, well," he says, and shrugs. "That is all. Thank you. You have a truly amazing ability. Between the two of us, we can find anybody. And go to see them! It makes you think, doesn't it?"
The smile fades a little when Molly sees the disappointment on Hiro's face. But, her serious expression is still leaning more toward happy than neutral. "You're welcome. Anyone you want me to find, I will," she pledges to the Japanese man who saved her life. And she does think about the possibilities that the pair of them possess in finding and traveling. "We could go see the Queen of England! Or the penguins in Antarctica!" Both would be thrilling for her.
"Antarctica is very cold," Hiro says. "I have never tried to go that far. I have only used my powers… well, mostly used my powers to do good. But I think one day, when Sylar is not on the loose, we can go on a vacation like that." He holds out his pinky. "What do you say? Penguins?"
Molly thinks that over. "We'll have to get very warm jackets. And earmuffs." Because who wants their ears to be cold? When Hiro holds out his pinky for a pinky swear, the blonde catches his with her own smaller one. Binding pact created, playground style. "Penguins," she replies as solemnly as she can while grinning that much.