Destined, chapter 2
Title: Destined
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Peter/Claire, Zach/Claire friendship
Rating: PG
Summary: Zach's always there to listen when she talks about Peter. This Chapter: Claire is back in Odessa, but she can't give up on Peter.
Previous Chapters: 1
Fic Art: HERE. ♥
A/N: Once again, everything in italics is Claire talking to/interacting with Zach.
Chapter Two - Home Is Where The Heart Is
After a day of driving, they arrive in Odessa at around 2:00 in the morning and check into a hotel. Claire's body feels weak and exhausted, but she doesn't care. She walks into the hotel room to a mixture of warm greetings from her mother and brother; her mother hugs her for about five minutes straight and Lyle gives her a shy, awed smile.
Claire tries to smile back, tries to hold on to her earlier feelings of happiness and relief at saving New York, but she can't. She's realized now that saving the world has come at a price - the price of her father and her uncle. She continues to see them in her mind, sees Nathan finally telling his little brother that he loves him, sees them flying high above her, sees the explosion that lights up the sky...
Claire is grateful when her dad tells her mother and brother not to press her with any questions; that she's exhausted and has been through a lot. Normally she would respond that she wasn't made of glass, that she was indestructible and wouldn't break, that she didn't need protecting, but for now she's thankful to be treated this way.
She falls asleep the second her head hits the pillow, but her dreams are haunted with hugs from Nathan and Peter's rare smiles.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
I'm at the Holiday Inn right up the road. Come over. I need to see you.
*
Zach comes over, and Claire nearly cries with joy at seeing him. She avoids her family, not wanting to be interrogated. They go to the place where her house used to stand, and all that's left is burnt rubble. That night they come back to the hotel at around midnight, and they lay out on her bed, her feet positioned by his head, and she finally tells him through tears everything that's happened to her in the past week.
*
Claire walks through house after house with her family, and she wishes she were anywhere else. A month ago she would have leapt at the opportunity to go house hunting, to do something that was normal, but that's changed now. The realtor's voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard and the frustration rises inside of her.
There's only one thing that she needs to do right now, and it's way more important than buying a house.
She pulls her dad aside as they leave one of the houses (a big one, much larger than their old one, which reminds her of the Petrelli mansion). "Dad, we have to go back to New York," she says bluntly, the tentative Claire of yesterday gone.
He slowly stops walking and looks down at her determined face. It's been three days since she's come home. After overcoming the shock of everything she'd been through, she'd been hit with only one desire - to find Nathan and Peter Petrelli.
"What do you mean, Claire-bear?"
"You said there was a tracking system," she says, careful to keep her voice down so her mother and brother don't hear her. "We need to find Nathan and Peter. Who knows where they are - "
"They're gone. No one could have survived that explosion." He places a hand on her shoulder in a comforting gesture, and she instinctively leans into his touch, she's just so tired, but she pulls back.
"No," she argues, shaking her head furiously. "Peter can regenerate. I gave that to him - he can heal!"
"But Nathan - "
She grits her teeth and tries her hardest not to cry. Even she knows that Nathan is probably dead. There was no way he could survive - he didn't have her power.
"We have to find Peter," she presses on, her hands trembling. "He saved my life. He's my uncle. I owe him."
For a second she is sure that her father is going to agree with her, that they'll finally be past the point where he needs to protect her, but his face tenses and she knows that he's going to say no. "Claire," he says, and it sounds almost like an apology. His hands are on both her shoulders now and she can't stop a tear or two from falling down her face.
She refuses to look him in the eyes.
*
"He just wants to keep you safe."
"Peter was the only person who ever made me feel safe."
"Claire, I'm sure that he has people looking for him. You're not the only one who cares about him."
"His own mother," she says tightly, "was willing to let him die."
"Maybe you should call her."
"I don't want to call her, I want to find Peter!"
"I know, but don't you think she could help?"
"No."
*
Over and over she tries to convince her father. It's gotten to the point that whenever she walks into a room and catches his eye, he sighs. But she refuses to give up. She wants to do this with his help - he's smart, knows so much more about everything than she does, and he's her father.
"Dad, please," she says at dinner three days later. They've bought a new house, which is completely bare, because all of their posessions are gone.
"Here we go again," sighs Lyle, and Claire resists the urge to stab him with her fork.
"Claire, it's too dangerous, honey," interjects her mother. "That man...he's still out there, isn't he?"
Claire preferred her when she had no clue what was going on. "No," she says, not taking her eyes off her dad, who is stirring his peas around on his plate. "Sylar's dead."
Her father finally looks up. "Claire - "
"Dad, you told me that home is anywhere that our family is together," she says firmly, having practiced this new speech a few hours ago. "Peter is my family, too. He's my uncle. We're connected...it's biological. I can't help it, I need to know where he is. Please.
Her dad goes back to his peas; she says she isn't hungry anymore and stalks out of the dining room.
*
She's at Zach's house two days later watching '10 Things I Hate About You' on TV when a commerical comes on.
Claire's stomach twists and turns as she looks into the smiling faces of her uncle and father. On the bottom of the screen, white letters flash across the screen: 'Funeral for Congressman Petrelli and his brother to be held on November 20th.'
Zach abruptly turns off the TV and she's stiff as a board. All it takes is his arm wrapped her neck and she loses herself, crying into his Maroon 5 t-shirt.
*
Her pink cell phone trembles ever so slightly in her hands as she dials Angela Petrelli's phone number. A voice comes on the line after a few rings, a New Yorker-soft-regal voice, and it takes every ounce of willpower inside of Claire not to hang up.
"It's Claire Bennet," she says.
There is a pause and heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. Then, "What do you want?"
"I want to come to the funeral," she says.
"This is all your fault," her grandmother whispers brokenly. "I gave you the chance to be a part of our family, to have everything in the world placed at your feet, and you threw it away. There was a plan, Claire. Nathan would have been the city's hero after the explosion, and Peter would have regenerated. Now they're both gone. You ruined everything. My sons are dead because of you."
Claire doesn't even have an opportunity to open her mouth to respond before the woman lets out a grieved cry and hangs up the phone.
*
She watches the funeral on TV with Zach, but it's all boring speeches and people who didn't know Nathan or Peter. Zach doesn't understand why, in the middle of the funeral, she locks herself in the bathroom and starts to laugh. She's laughing because, as she sadly reminds herself, she didn't really know them either.
*
Her father forces her to go back to school and she's never dreaded anything more in her entire life. School seems foreign to her, like some language she can't ever learn, and she hasn't ever felt more out of place.
All of her teachers ask why she's been gone for so long and she tells each one that she was so sick she was in the hospital for awhile; her dad forges a note to back up the story.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
Thanks for writing my essay for me. I just can't write about bombs and World Wars right now. I won't make you do my homework for me again, I promise.
*
True to her word, Claire doesn't ask Zach to do her assignments. She just doesn't do them at all, and when a test marked with a giant F is dropped on her desk, she doesn't even care.
*
"Did he have a power?"
The question startles her and Claire looks at her brother in surprise. It's the first time she's talked to him in over a week. "What?"
"Your dad..." Lyle shrugs, as if this is no big deal, "did he have a power?"
Claire nods, a small smile on her face. "He could fly."
Lyle's eyes light up. "That's so cool," he says, and he sits next to her on the steps. "What about - ?"
"Peter could absorb powers," she explains. "If he was around someone who could do something, then he could do it, too.
"Wow," he says, and Claire briefly thinks that it's so surreal to be having a conversation with him without worrying that he won't remember it the next day.
Claire looks down at her nails and goes on, "He could draw the future, too. He was supposed to regenerate, but - "
Lyle taps her shoulder with his, his attempt at not letting her sink into a depressive slump. "Do you think he's dead?" he asks bluntly.
"Of course he is," Claire mutters, digging her nails hard into her palm so that it bleeds. She watches as the blood disappears.
"But if he can regenerate, then he can't be, right?"
"That's what I thought, but, no one's heard from him. There's been search teams looking for him and Nathan. They're gone, Lyle."
"God, Claire," says Lyle, standing up and rolling his eyes, "you're such a defeatist."
Something in his words sparks something inside of her, and that night when the lights go out, she grabs her Sidekick and sneaks out of the house.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
Get your car. We're going to save my hero.
Read the next chapter here!
FRIEND this journal for updates.
SEE the complete list of all the writing I've done. Includes my own fiction/poems, plus fanfic.
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Peter/Claire, Zach/Claire friendship
Rating: PG
Summary: Zach's always there to listen when she talks about Peter. This Chapter: Claire is back in Odessa, but she can't give up on Peter.
Previous Chapters: 1
Fic Art: HERE. ♥
A/N: Once again, everything in italics is Claire talking to/interacting with Zach.
Chapter Two - Home Is Where The Heart Is
After a day of driving, they arrive in Odessa at around 2:00 in the morning and check into a hotel. Claire's body feels weak and exhausted, but she doesn't care. She walks into the hotel room to a mixture of warm greetings from her mother and brother; her mother hugs her for about five minutes straight and Lyle gives her a shy, awed smile.
Claire tries to smile back, tries to hold on to her earlier feelings of happiness and relief at saving New York, but she can't. She's realized now that saving the world has come at a price - the price of her father and her uncle. She continues to see them in her mind, sees Nathan finally telling his little brother that he loves him, sees them flying high above her, sees the explosion that lights up the sky...
Claire is grateful when her dad tells her mother and brother not to press her with any questions; that she's exhausted and has been through a lot. Normally she would respond that she wasn't made of glass, that she was indestructible and wouldn't break, that she didn't need protecting, but for now she's thankful to be treated this way.
She falls asleep the second her head hits the pillow, but her dreams are haunted with hugs from Nathan and Peter's rare smiles.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
I'm at the Holiday Inn right up the road. Come over. I need to see you.
*
Zach comes over, and Claire nearly cries with joy at seeing him. She avoids her family, not wanting to be interrogated. They go to the place where her house used to stand, and all that's left is burnt rubble. That night they come back to the hotel at around midnight, and they lay out on her bed, her feet positioned by his head, and she finally tells him through tears everything that's happened to her in the past week.
*
Claire walks through house after house with her family, and she wishes she were anywhere else. A month ago she would have leapt at the opportunity to go house hunting, to do something that was normal, but that's changed now. The realtor's voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard and the frustration rises inside of her.
There's only one thing that she needs to do right now, and it's way more important than buying a house.
She pulls her dad aside as they leave one of the houses (a big one, much larger than their old one, which reminds her of the Petrelli mansion). "Dad, we have to go back to New York," she says bluntly, the tentative Claire of yesterday gone.
He slowly stops walking and looks down at her determined face. It's been three days since she's come home. After overcoming the shock of everything she'd been through, she'd been hit with only one desire - to find Nathan and Peter Petrelli.
"What do you mean, Claire-bear?"
"You said there was a tracking system," she says, careful to keep her voice down so her mother and brother don't hear her. "We need to find Nathan and Peter. Who knows where they are - "
"They're gone. No one could have survived that explosion." He places a hand on her shoulder in a comforting gesture, and she instinctively leans into his touch, she's just so tired, but she pulls back.
"No," she argues, shaking her head furiously. "Peter can regenerate. I gave that to him - he can heal!"
"But Nathan - "
She grits her teeth and tries her hardest not to cry. Even she knows that Nathan is probably dead. There was no way he could survive - he didn't have her power.
"We have to find Peter," she presses on, her hands trembling. "He saved my life. He's my uncle. I owe him."
For a second she is sure that her father is going to agree with her, that they'll finally be past the point where he needs to protect her, but his face tenses and she knows that he's going to say no. "Claire," he says, and it sounds almost like an apology. His hands are on both her shoulders now and she can't stop a tear or two from falling down her face.
She refuses to look him in the eyes.
*
"He just wants to keep you safe."
"Peter was the only person who ever made me feel safe."
"Claire, I'm sure that he has people looking for him. You're not the only one who cares about him."
"His own mother," she says tightly, "was willing to let him die."
"Maybe you should call her."
"I don't want to call her, I want to find Peter!"
"I know, but don't you think she could help?"
"No."
*
Over and over she tries to convince her father. It's gotten to the point that whenever she walks into a room and catches his eye, he sighs. But she refuses to give up. She wants to do this with his help - he's smart, knows so much more about everything than she does, and he's her father.
"Dad, please," she says at dinner three days later. They've bought a new house, which is completely bare, because all of their posessions are gone.
"Here we go again," sighs Lyle, and Claire resists the urge to stab him with her fork.
"Claire, it's too dangerous, honey," interjects her mother. "That man...he's still out there, isn't he?"
Claire preferred her when she had no clue what was going on. "No," she says, not taking her eyes off her dad, who is stirring his peas around on his plate. "Sylar's dead."
Her father finally looks up. "Claire - "
"Dad, you told me that home is anywhere that our family is together," she says firmly, having practiced this new speech a few hours ago. "Peter is my family, too. He's my uncle. We're connected...it's biological. I can't help it, I need to know where he is. Please.
Her dad goes back to his peas; she says she isn't hungry anymore and stalks out of the dining room.
*
She's at Zach's house two days later watching '10 Things I Hate About You' on TV when a commerical comes on.
Claire's stomach twists and turns as she looks into the smiling faces of her uncle and father. On the bottom of the screen, white letters flash across the screen: 'Funeral for Congressman Petrelli and his brother to be held on November 20th.'
Zach abruptly turns off the TV and she's stiff as a board. All it takes is his arm wrapped her neck and she loses herself, crying into his Maroon 5 t-shirt.
*
Her pink cell phone trembles ever so slightly in her hands as she dials Angela Petrelli's phone number. A voice comes on the line after a few rings, a New Yorker-soft-regal voice, and it takes every ounce of willpower inside of Claire not to hang up.
"It's Claire Bennet," she says.
There is a pause and heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. Then, "What do you want?"
"I want to come to the funeral," she says.
"This is all your fault," her grandmother whispers brokenly. "I gave you the chance to be a part of our family, to have everything in the world placed at your feet, and you threw it away. There was a plan, Claire. Nathan would have been the city's hero after the explosion, and Peter would have regenerated. Now they're both gone. You ruined everything. My sons are dead because of you."
Claire doesn't even have an opportunity to open her mouth to respond before the woman lets out a grieved cry and hangs up the phone.
*
She watches the funeral on TV with Zach, but it's all boring speeches and people who didn't know Nathan or Peter. Zach doesn't understand why, in the middle of the funeral, she locks herself in the bathroom and starts to laugh. She's laughing because, as she sadly reminds herself, she didn't really know them either.
*
Her father forces her to go back to school and she's never dreaded anything more in her entire life. School seems foreign to her, like some language she can't ever learn, and she hasn't ever felt more out of place.
All of her teachers ask why she's been gone for so long and she tells each one that she was so sick she was in the hospital for awhile; her dad forges a note to back up the story.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
Thanks for writing my essay for me. I just can't write about bombs and World Wars right now. I won't make you do my homework for me again, I promise.
*
True to her word, Claire doesn't ask Zach to do her assignments. She just doesn't do them at all, and when a test marked with a giant F is dropped on her desk, she doesn't even care.
*
"Did he have a power?"
The question startles her and Claire looks at her brother in surprise. It's the first time she's talked to him in over a week. "What?"
"Your dad..." Lyle shrugs, as if this is no big deal, "did he have a power?"
Claire nods, a small smile on her face. "He could fly."
Lyle's eyes light up. "That's so cool," he says, and he sits next to her on the steps. "What about - ?"
"Peter could absorb powers," she explains. "If he was around someone who could do something, then he could do it, too.
"Wow," he says, and Claire briefly thinks that it's so surreal to be having a conversation with him without worrying that he won't remember it the next day.
Claire looks down at her nails and goes on, "He could draw the future, too. He was supposed to regenerate, but - "
Lyle taps her shoulder with his, his attempt at not letting her sink into a depressive slump. "Do you think he's dead?" he asks bluntly.
"Of course he is," Claire mutters, digging her nails hard into her palm so that it bleeds. She watches as the blood disappears.
"But if he can regenerate, then he can't be, right?"
"That's what I thought, but, no one's heard from him. There's been search teams looking for him and Nathan. They're gone, Lyle."
"God, Claire," says Lyle, standing up and rolling his eyes, "you're such a defeatist."
Something in his words sparks something inside of her, and that night when the lights go out, she grabs her Sidekick and sneaks out of the house.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
Get your car. We're going to save my hero.
Read the next chapter here!
FRIEND this journal for updates.
SEE the complete list of all the writing I've done. Includes my own fiction/poems, plus fanfic.