2007-03-21: Something Is Building...

Starring:

Mara_icon.gif Mohinder_icon.gif

Summary: Mara finally gets around to telling Mohinder about her newfound ability to see the future, and informs him of her suspicions about Special Agent Boone, supposedly of the FBI. Mohinder chastises her for waiting to tell him about these new developments and Mara discovers she may have underestimated the geneticist's capacity to be underhanded.

Date It Happened: March 21, 2007

Something Is Building…


Reed Street Laboratories

Mohinder is just now making it to the lab for the day, having been at the Company facilities and kept quite busy there. There are a few things he's anxious to start on, but he takes his time heading properly into the lab. A small stack of mail is in hand and he's shuffling through the envelopes. Hmm.. Junk.. fanmail for Isaac, scathing retorts against his theoretical genetics. Oh the usual.

Shortly after Suresh's arrival to the lab, there's a pounding at the door. "Mohinder!" Followed by Mara's angry bellowing. "Open this door right now!" It's taken her some time to get her thoughts together and… Well, she hasn't actually gotten her thoughts together, but going to see Mohinder is more productive than sitting around her apartment and trying to figure out how to get life at large back under control.

Mohinder sets the mail down on a counter and pulls his bag off from over his shoulder to set it aside. The pounding and the angry yelling gets his attention quite quickly. With quick steps, he bounds up to the door and opens it. "Mara? What's the matter?" he looks perplexed as to why the detective is in such a state.

Mara pushes past him to enter the lab, making her intentions of staying for a while quite clear when she tosses her denim jacket over a chair. "You said you- You were supposed to keep my identity safe from them! You told me to meet with Boone!"

Mohinder blinks as Mara pushes past him. "Come on in," he mutters with a hint of sarcasm as he shuts the door. "I /did/ keep your identity confidential. I've told no one. As for Boone, I was under the impression that you had little choice in the matter."

Detective Damaris actually has the grace to look surprised when Mohinder doesn't "admit" to anything. "Why do I have a Company man poking around?!" She's running on a hunch here, but she's willing to bet it's a good one.

Mohinder looks confused as he approaches Mara. "What do you mean? You've got a Company man poking around.. who? When did this happen? I promise you, I did not share anything about your ability and testing."

"It's Boone," Mara begins pacing back and forth, clearly agitated, but at least not taking it out on poor Mohinder anymore. "He has these… He sees things in his dreams. At least, I think he sees things. I'm not sure if he has visions like I do, or if it's… I think his memory's been altered, and I /don't/ think he's with the FBI."

"What?" Mohinder looks a little stunned at what Mara has to say. "It's.. not out of the realm of the unthinkable, but why go to such lengths? It could very well be that he is with the FBI and has had his memory altered, or he has visions. If he's with the Company, this is news to me, I assure you."

"He has to be. He- I-" Mara stops abruptly and fixes her eyes on Mohinder. She watches his face intently, prepared to judge the slightest reaction. "Eden McCain. Does that name mean anything to you?"

Mohinder doesn't have time to really work on a response to Mara's stammering. She throws /that/ name out there. Having not wandered far from the stairs, he takes a few steps back and braces a hand on the railing. "Yes.. she.. she was my neighbor, and my father's. Her real name is Sarah Ellis and her body was found in Lake Ramsey. Supposedly suicide according to the FBI agent who was inquiring after her."

"She was Boone's partner." There's a pause. Let that sink in. "According to Boone, at least," Mara adds quietly. "Gray got to her." That's not to say he killed her, but… really…

Mohinder blinks and looks sharply at Mara. "Eden was not an FBI agent. She was Company and planted to spy on me. She also had an arrest record. I'm going to speak to this Boone. Matt said he wanted a few words with me anyway. I want to find out what he's playing at."

"And then what? You're gonna tell the big, bad Company man to leave your pet project alone?" Mara folds her arms under her chest, seemingly at a loss. "Honestly… I don't know what to make of the visions I saw." The woman ambles over to take a seat and rests her elbows against her knees before putting her head in her hands. "I don't know what to make of any of it anymore."

Mohinder pushes away from the stair railing, now that this is starting to sink in. "I honestly do not know how they found out about you. Did he specifically know of your ability? I coded your file and not once used your real name on it." He then looks around his lab, almost as if expecting to see a spy camera or hidden agents.

"I don't think he … I don't know if he knows or not. I haven't told him. I haven't admitted to being able to do what I do." The floor is stared at. Hard. Give me answers, dammit, or I'll bore a hole through you all the way China. Or maybe Indonesia. "All I've admitted to is that Gray has abilities." Mara sighs heavily.

"I see.. and did he take you seriously? Matt wanted to copy my father's files on Sylar for this case. They wanted to pursue the angle that Sylar believes very much that he has abilities, to understand his mindset. Not that the possibility existed of him having powers."

"Don't say that name!" Mara snaps, her head coming up so she can lift her gaze from the floor to the geneticist. "His name is /Gray/." There's that flinching. Proof that just the sound of the man's name can make her skin crawl. "Boone believes it. He's seen it. I merely confirmed."

Mohinder doesn't apologize for referring to Gray as Sylar. He's pretty much immune to Mara's snapping. He walks past Mara and into his lab. His bag is shouldered and he pulls out his keys. "So he believes it. I want to find out who he's with. The FBI, the Company? Just a confused person flashing around a picture of a dead woman.."

"He cared for her. I can see it." Mara brushes her bangs away from her brow absently. "I'm… not entirely sure he knows what he's dealing with. Before I had my visions, I told him I wanted to meet.. my doctor." There's a hint of amusement in her tone as she speaks those last two words. "I didn't know if it would be safe to bring him to you, though… Not necessarily for your sake, but for my own. Admitting you were the one who's fixed my blackouts, which he's aware of, would be like admitting to the cause." She holds her hands out in front of her, wrists together. "Oh please, just bag and tag me now, Agent Boone! I'd like to make this easy for you!" She rolls her eyes, managing sarcasm in spite of herself.

Mohinder rolls his own eyes at Mara's flair for the dramatic. "He probably /thinks/ he cared for her. Sylar did get to her.. the last time I spoke to her, she apologized for lying to me, and promised she would kill the man who murdered my father. It doesn't take a genius to see what happened." He raises a hand to his forehead, rubbing firmly. "I see, thank you for the discretion. It's quite likely he doesn't know what he's dealing with."

"It's possible. But I don't like it either way." Mara almost looks ill. "It figures. He listens to me. We agree on everything. He doesn't call me crazy or a goddamn glory hound like /Parkman/, and he's with the Company. I have the best luck." Damaris tips her head back, staring up at the ceiling.

"We don't know this for sure. It's a possibility." But who is Mohinder trying to fool here? Himself or Mara? "As for Matt, there's no need to exaggerate." He rubs at his temple a moment before switching subjects completely, "How are /you/ feeling, stress aside? No side effects? No blacking out?"

There it is. The elephant in the room. Can't really ignore it anymore. Mara takes in a deep breath, holds it for a few seconds, and then lets it out again. Slowly. She tilts her head to one side and takes the inside of her lip between her teeth. "There is /one/ side effect, I think."

Mohinder pockets his keys, as he puts off on paying Boone a visit for the moment. "Ah, there it is, did I not stress that you should call? What is it?"

"You might have. Once or twice. But.. I'm not very good at following directions when it comes to things I just don't want to deal with." Mara raises her eyebrows, allowing herself to grin for one brief moment. "You ready for this?"

"I can tell that you aren't very good with directions," Mohinder responds quite smoothly to Mara. "I'm ready." He folds his arms across his chest and looks quite unamused.

No more toying. It's time to drop the bomb on him. Mara says only one thing:

"I see the future."

Mohinder looks astonished for a few moments as he thinks about this, then, "You saw the future? Remarkable. That's an entirely plausible turn for your abilities to take. It could be a side effect of the medication, although I don't think so. Abilities.. they have a tendency to evolve with use."

Mara nods slowly, secretly pleased she was able to throw the geneticist a curve ball, even if it wasn't truly of her own making. "I don't… know if it'll come to be or not, what I saw. But… I saw visions of Boone. I'm not sure how much of what I saw was past, and how much was future. I… Keep Molly far, far away from him. I don't like what I saw."

"I don't plan on letting him near Molly," Mohinder states firmly. As for Matt? That'll be a talk for later. "What was it you saw? I want to know."

"It's fuzzy. It all happened so fast. It was so /much/." Mara rubs her head, as if willing the memories of her visions to the fore. "He just… I'm not sure if it's Molly I saw, or if I thought I should be seeing Molly. The visions don't make sense. But… he was pointing a gun at a child. He felt… guilty. Ashamed? He didn't do it. Couldn't do it."

Mohinder's eyes narrow as he advances on Mara, just a little impatient to hear. He stops just a few steps short of the detective and nods. Something about Mara's vision must make sense to him. "This was your first time seeing the future, or the possibility of an event. Seeing the future, it may not always make sense." He gestures towards the mural on the floor of his lab, "Some things.. are quite clear, and some events that are foreseen.. they may not be."

"I don't know. I don't understand." Mara covers her face with both hands now, stifling a small groan. "I feel like I should stay away from him. But if I do, I may not… What if I missed something, a vision, a hint, a hunch? Perhaps keeping a close proximity is the best course of action for now?"

"It might not be. I cannot tell you what to do." Mohinder says, then with a hint of a smile he adds, "You've already shown that you won't listen." His mind is now distracted as he ponders this Boone's motives.

Mara can't help but smile back. "Yeah, it's one of my best qualities, following my own instincts. Gets me in trouble sometimes. Can't imagine /why/." She peeks out been her fingers and shakes momentarily with a silent chuckle.

"I couldn't begin to imagine why either," Mohinder says with some dark humor. "I've got to go get Molly, then meet this Boone once she's with Matt for the evening. This weekend, you're due for another injection."

"I think it's wearing off," Mara confesses. "I collapsed when I had my vision. I didn't blackout - I was conscious. But I couldn't stay on my feet. I just… fell."

Mohinder inclines his head in a nod. "This is precisely why I wanted you to stay in contact with me over the slightest change.. that and any adverse effects that could arise."

"I'm telling you now! It's only been… a few hours." A couple days? Time is all relative, right? "I was kind of preoccupied with the whole idea that I might have a Company man walking me home." That much is true, at least. Mara does manage to look sheepish, though, as she rests her hands in her lap. "I have a bad feeling about things, Mohinder. It feels like something is building. Something bad. It feels like something is… coming."

"You didn't specify as to when this had occurred, my apologies." Mohinder jingles his keys a moment. "It tends to feel like that more often than not. Come along, I'll walk with you to your car." He doesn't seem to be dismissive of Mara's warning. Far from it, that grim expression in his eyes says he's taking this seriously.

Mara climbs to her feet and retrieves her jacket, pulling it on as she walks toward the door. "I'll call you if anything happens. If anything changes. For real this time."

"Good. I shall hold you to that." Mohinder says as he walks Mara out. "Otherwise, I will sneak items with a nasty past around your house for you to encounter."

Mara actually stops in her tracks and stares at Mohinder for a long, long moment. "You- You wouldn't." That's the scary thing. Why wouldn't he?

Mohinder chuckles briefly. He does not confirm nor deny, "Come along now. I've got an appointment to keep with a special young lady." And he's not sure what Mara's plans are.

"And I've got a date with a pint of ice cream and a gin and tonic," Mara muses as she shakes off the apprehension. Gin will fix /everything/. "I'll be at home if you need me for anything. Tell Molly I said hello, won't you?" She hits the unlock button for her car, managing a faint smile for Suresh.

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