Fic: Good Things (PG, Peter/Claire)
IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE: This story can now be found at my other LJ: ridley1013
(Also, I have no idea why the LJ cut looks so funky here...)
Title: Good Things
Author: riane_71 ridley1013
Rating: PG
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Claire, a little bit of Noah, Paire
Disclaimer: I don’t own them (if I did, Peter & Claire would so not be related)
Summary: Claire Bennet hated waiting with a passion.
Author Notes: AU Post-Season 01. I guess you could say there are one or two extremely vague spoilers for Season 02. Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine. This is my very first fic (been reading for years but never wrote one myself until now); please be gentle!
Claire Bennet hated waiting with a passion.
She had never been very good at it. Her mother used to tease her about staying up to catch Santa Claus bringing toys Christmas morning or the Tooth Fairy leaving money under her pillow (of course, she could never stay awake long enough to catch them despite her best efforts to do so). Lyle would roll his eyes when Claire would complain about the lines at Six Flags. Her father just smiled and told her good things come to those who wait.
She never believed it before but she was wishing for it with her whole heart now.
Claire was a bundle of nerves, partly due to lack of sleep and copious amounts of coffee but mostly to her overactive imagination. She tapped her foot impatiently and crossed and uncrossed her arms. She stroked the same strand of oily blonde hair repeatedly with her fingers and stood up on her tiptoes numerous times, even though it didn’t help. She just couldn’t keep still. Where the hell were the passengers? Didn’t the plane just land? She looked over at her father, a picture of calm, and placed her hand on his arm.
“Any sign of them?” She tried her best to keep her voice steady. The attempt was only slightly successful.
Noah sighed, tilting his head towards her. He took off his glasses and polished them with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “No. Not yet.” He slid the glasses back on as the handkerchief was put away. “Plane landed twenty minutes ago. Passengers should be coming through the gates any minute now. Please don’t worry Claire. I’m sure they’re fine. All of them.” He gave her a small smile and patted her hand.
Claire sighed as they both returned their attention to the growing crowd around them. So many people were waiting. The last plane out from a part of the world that had suddenly erupted in complete and utter chaos less than twenty-four hours ago…Claire just prayed they were safe, that they made it out before everything completely went to hell. She had seen the reports on the news channels, just as the rest of the world had. It was the stuff nightmares were made of. When the news broke, her father had tried unsuccessfully to shield her from the violence the news channels apparently insisted on showing repeatedly. Claire had broken down in tears when she finally saw the bloodshed and horror being played out right before her eyes. And when she had learned that’s where the others were, she had nearly passed out. The faces of pain and devastation on television were replaced with in her mind with ones of her friends (with him) every time she closed her eyes.
She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not after everything they had been through over the last seventeen months - the explosion, his apparent death, his amnesia, and the numerous secrets and lies they each had uncovered as they had struggled to find each other again. And now that they had finally learned the truth about who they were to each other, it seemed like a cruel joke was being played on them. The one person in her life that she found she needed like no one else before had gotten himself nearly killed on the other side of the world trying to learn that one last piece of the puzzle. For just a tiny moment, Claire silently cursed Hiro for taking Molly on a time travel field trip. She immediately tamped it down. Hiro couldn’t have known this was going to happen; while he could bend time and space, he couldn’t predict the future. As it was, Niki and Matt were willing to drop everything find one of their own. Mohinder had aggressively insisted on tagging along when he heard Sylar might be involved. Claire couldn’t help but wonder if Sylar was indeed responsible for all the chaos so far away. She wouldn’t put it past him.
Suddenly, a burst of noise came from several feet away and quickly filled the entire terminal. Claire and Noah looked on as passengers (exhausted, angry, alive) began flowing into the terminal. A deafening roar thundered through the airport as passengers and family members were reunited and the press began shouting questions. Claire anxiously scanned the crowd but as people flowed around them and the light of hundreds of camera flashes went off in the area set aside for the press, she found she couldn’t see much of anything.
Noah turned to her and said “Stay here. I’ll see if I can find them.” Before Claire could voice a protest, he was swallowed up in the crowd.
Claire quickly found that staying put was next to impossible. The crowd began to surge as more passengers entered the terminal and Claire found herself nearly crushed among the mass of families struggling to get to their loved ones. Somehow she managed to duck and weave her way to the nearby stairs leading to the upper level but even there she struggled to fight the current.
Once she had finally made it to the upper level (which wasn’t as nearly as congested as downstairs so at least she wasn’t in danger of being trampled), it was somewhat easier to navigate her way around. She managed to arrive at the railing and once again began scanning the crowd. She desperately needed to find a familiar face. His face.
It was like viewing a swarm of insects; there was constant movement and the sound was overwhelming. Moments later, Claire thought she spotted a bewildered Niki but when she blinked, the statuesque blonde was gone. She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her head was beginning to throb and all she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. She shook it off. There’s no time for this. She needed to find him, to make sure he was safe. She knew without a doubt he would do the same for her. Claire took a deep breath, raised her head, and began her search anew.
*****
Claire slumped against the railing and rubbed her eyes wearily. In the last hour and a half, the crowd finally began to thin out a bit and there was still no sign of anyone Claire knew, including her father. The upper level now almost vacant, she had paced from one end of the railing to the other numerous times, all the while scanning faces for familiarity.
She regretted not bringing her cell phone. As soon as her father had gotten word from Matt only a few hours before on a static-filled air-to-ground phone call that they had just barely managed to get on the last flight out, Claire and Noah had rushed to the airport. On the other hand, at least she didn’t have to field calls from Nathan, who was in the middle of a heated Senate election back in New York. She knew he was worried. She also knew that a worried Nathan was a quick-tempered Nathan and she simply didn’t have the energy to deal with him right now. She was relieved when Noah had made the call himself to inform Nathan of the situation. Nathan wanted to drop everything and head to California but as Noah had pointed out, the press would be there. How would Nathan explain how he got clear across the country in such a short amount of time, particularly since he was at a photo-op in Manhattan this morning? Nathan’s response was to hang up on him but Claire was pretty sure her father had gotten through to him.
It occurred to her that she might be able to see more if she stood on the railing. She found a spot she thought would provide the best vantage point and placed both feet on the bottom railing. It really wasn’t any better than standing on the floor and Claire knew she needed to be higher. She placed her right foot on the top railing and began to lift her left.
She realized almost immediately that this was bad idea. As she began to lose her balance and pitch forward, a hand roughly grabbed her elbow and yanked her back.
“What the hell are you doing Claire?!” While her father’s tone of voice conveyed more concern than anger, she knew she was being chastised.
“Dad.” Claire sighed as she wrapped her arms around him in a brief hug. “I was looking for you. For them. Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere.”
Noah looked down into his daughter’s tired blue eyes with a chagrined look. “I’m sorry Claire-bear. I didn’t realize I would be gone so long. But that doesn’t mean you can take chances like that. What if someone had seen you fall?” She knew there was a silent and heal tacked onto the end of that sentence. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her a few feet back from the railing. Noting the worried look on Claire’s face, Noah decided his safety talk could wait a little while. “Never mind. I found Mohinder. He’s a little banged up and a lot out of it but it looks like he’ll be okay.”
Claire bit her lower lip. “And the others?”
“Niki and Parkman are fine. They are being debriefed as we speak.”
“But what about -“
Noah laid his hands on her shoulders. The expression on his face was one of calm yet Claire wasn’t reassured.
“I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to talk with Niki or Parkman yet. And Mohinder’s not making much sense at the moment. He’s been going on about pink elephants and their DNA for the last forty minutes.” Noah shook his head. “Look, we’ll find him. I promise. My guess is they got separated when they got off the plane. From what I heard, it was a madhouse. He’s probably searching for the others so let’s be where they are.”
Claire nodded wearily.
Noah glanced to the nearby restroom. “Just give me a minute and we’ll go.” She nodded again as he gave Claire a quick kiss to the top of her head before striding off.
She wrapped her arms around herself tightly as she made her way back to the railing, casting a forlorn look to the dwindling crowd below. Please, she prayed, please let him be okay.
As she looked out over the railing, she froze as she sensed someone behind her. Could it be? She always had a sense of when he was near and couldn’t be more grateful for it than right now. She glanced over her shoulder and her breath left her. The noise from below ceased to exist for her. Nothing existed anymore but the two of them.
Not ten feet away stood Peter Petrelli. He looked like he had been through hell - dirty, disheveled, and exhausted beyond words. But his eyes, those beautifully expressive brown eyes, were drinking her in like he was dying of thirst and she was the only water in sight.
“Claire?” Peter whispered. His eyes never leaving hers, he dropped his knapsack and began moving towards her.
Claire blinked back tears just for a moment before launching herself at Peter. He staggered back a little bit from the force, sighing deeply as he wrapped his arms around her. Burying his face on the top of her head, he choked out “Oh God, Claire…”
Claire couldn’t help but let out a sob as she buried her face in his neck, her arms locking around his waist. Peter tightened his arms around her trembling form, one hand coming up to caress her hair. Closing his eyes, he pressed his lips to the crown of her head as the two swayed gently.
Peter raised his head slightly moments later to see Noah standing by the restroom door, watching them with a small smile on his face. He nodded to Peter (who gave him a quirk of his lips in response) and silently made his way downstairs to join the others. Peter rested his cheek on the blonde weeping in his arms. He began murmuring softly to her, endearments that were for her ears alone.
Peter pulled back just enough to lovingly cup Claire’s face, his thumbs brushing her wet cheeks. She smiled shakily up at him as she brought her hands up to stroke his dark tresses. “Peter, I lo- “
Anything else she would have said was lost as he claimed her mouth with his own.
As the kiss deepened, Claire found her world being reduced to pure sensation.
Her last coherent thought was that her father had been right. Good things come to those who wait and the best thing in her world was right where she needed him to be.
The End
Additional Author’s Notes: I can envision this as part of a longer story, although at the moment, I have a thousand plot bunnies running through my head - all of them demanding attention. But I may come back to this sometime and flesh it out a bit.
(Also, I have no idea why the LJ cut looks so funky here...)
Title: Good Things
Author: riane_71 ridley1013
Rating: PG
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Claire, a little bit of Noah, Paire
Disclaimer: I don’t own them (if I did, Peter & Claire would so not be related)
Summary: Claire Bennet hated waiting with a passion.
Author Notes: AU Post-Season 01. I guess you could say there are one or two extremely vague spoilers for Season 02. Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine. This is my very first fic (been reading for years but never wrote one myself until now); please be gentle!
Claire Bennet hated waiting with a passion.
She had never been very good at it. Her mother used to tease her about staying up to catch Santa Claus bringing toys Christmas morning or the Tooth Fairy leaving money under her pillow (of course, she could never stay awake long enough to catch them despite her best efforts to do so). Lyle would roll his eyes when Claire would complain about the lines at Six Flags. Her father just smiled and told her good things come to those who wait.
She never believed it before but she was wishing for it with her whole heart now.
Claire was a bundle of nerves, partly due to lack of sleep and copious amounts of coffee but mostly to her overactive imagination. She tapped her foot impatiently and crossed and uncrossed her arms. She stroked the same strand of oily blonde hair repeatedly with her fingers and stood up on her tiptoes numerous times, even though it didn’t help. She just couldn’t keep still. Where the hell were the passengers? Didn’t the plane just land? She looked over at her father, a picture of calm, and placed her hand on his arm.
“Any sign of them?” She tried her best to keep her voice steady. The attempt was only slightly successful.
Noah sighed, tilting his head towards her. He took off his glasses and polished them with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “No. Not yet.” He slid the glasses back on as the handkerchief was put away. “Plane landed twenty minutes ago. Passengers should be coming through the gates any minute now. Please don’t worry Claire. I’m sure they’re fine. All of them.” He gave her a small smile and patted her hand.
Claire sighed as they both returned their attention to the growing crowd around them. So many people were waiting. The last plane out from a part of the world that had suddenly erupted in complete and utter chaos less than twenty-four hours ago…Claire just prayed they were safe, that they made it out before everything completely went to hell. She had seen the reports on the news channels, just as the rest of the world had. It was the stuff nightmares were made of. When the news broke, her father had tried unsuccessfully to shield her from the violence the news channels apparently insisted on showing repeatedly. Claire had broken down in tears when she finally saw the bloodshed and horror being played out right before her eyes. And when she had learned that’s where the others were, she had nearly passed out. The faces of pain and devastation on television were replaced with in her mind with ones of her friends (with him) every time she closed her eyes.
She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not after everything they had been through over the last seventeen months - the explosion, his apparent death, his amnesia, and the numerous secrets and lies they each had uncovered as they had struggled to find each other again. And now that they had finally learned the truth about who they were to each other, it seemed like a cruel joke was being played on them. The one person in her life that she found she needed like no one else before had gotten himself nearly killed on the other side of the world trying to learn that one last piece of the puzzle. For just a tiny moment, Claire silently cursed Hiro for taking Molly on a time travel field trip. She immediately tamped it down. Hiro couldn’t have known this was going to happen; while he could bend time and space, he couldn’t predict the future. As it was, Niki and Matt were willing to drop everything find one of their own. Mohinder had aggressively insisted on tagging along when he heard Sylar might be involved. Claire couldn’t help but wonder if Sylar was indeed responsible for all the chaos so far away. She wouldn’t put it past him.
Suddenly, a burst of noise came from several feet away and quickly filled the entire terminal. Claire and Noah looked on as passengers (exhausted, angry, alive) began flowing into the terminal. A deafening roar thundered through the airport as passengers and family members were reunited and the press began shouting questions. Claire anxiously scanned the crowd but as people flowed around them and the light of hundreds of camera flashes went off in the area set aside for the press, she found she couldn’t see much of anything.
Noah turned to her and said “Stay here. I’ll see if I can find them.” Before Claire could voice a protest, he was swallowed up in the crowd.
Claire quickly found that staying put was next to impossible. The crowd began to surge as more passengers entered the terminal and Claire found herself nearly crushed among the mass of families struggling to get to their loved ones. Somehow she managed to duck and weave her way to the nearby stairs leading to the upper level but even there she struggled to fight the current.
Once she had finally made it to the upper level (which wasn’t as nearly as congested as downstairs so at least she wasn’t in danger of being trampled), it was somewhat easier to navigate her way around. She managed to arrive at the railing and once again began scanning the crowd. She desperately needed to find a familiar face. His face.
It was like viewing a swarm of insects; there was constant movement and the sound was overwhelming. Moments later, Claire thought she spotted a bewildered Niki but when she blinked, the statuesque blonde was gone. She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her head was beginning to throb and all she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. She shook it off. There’s no time for this. She needed to find him, to make sure he was safe. She knew without a doubt he would do the same for her. Claire took a deep breath, raised her head, and began her search anew.
*****
Claire slumped against the railing and rubbed her eyes wearily. In the last hour and a half, the crowd finally began to thin out a bit and there was still no sign of anyone Claire knew, including her father. The upper level now almost vacant, she had paced from one end of the railing to the other numerous times, all the while scanning faces for familiarity.
She regretted not bringing her cell phone. As soon as her father had gotten word from Matt only a few hours before on a static-filled air-to-ground phone call that they had just barely managed to get on the last flight out, Claire and Noah had rushed to the airport. On the other hand, at least she didn’t have to field calls from Nathan, who was in the middle of a heated Senate election back in New York. She knew he was worried. She also knew that a worried Nathan was a quick-tempered Nathan and she simply didn’t have the energy to deal with him right now. She was relieved when Noah had made the call himself to inform Nathan of the situation. Nathan wanted to drop everything and head to California but as Noah had pointed out, the press would be there. How would Nathan explain how he got clear across the country in such a short amount of time, particularly since he was at a photo-op in Manhattan this morning? Nathan’s response was to hang up on him but Claire was pretty sure her father had gotten through to him.
It occurred to her that she might be able to see more if she stood on the railing. She found a spot she thought would provide the best vantage point and placed both feet on the bottom railing. It really wasn’t any better than standing on the floor and Claire knew she needed to be higher. She placed her right foot on the top railing and began to lift her left.
She realized almost immediately that this was bad idea. As she began to lose her balance and pitch forward, a hand roughly grabbed her elbow and yanked her back.
“What the hell are you doing Claire?!” While her father’s tone of voice conveyed more concern than anger, she knew she was being chastised.
“Dad.” Claire sighed as she wrapped her arms around him in a brief hug. “I was looking for you. For them. Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere.”
Noah looked down into his daughter’s tired blue eyes with a chagrined look. “I’m sorry Claire-bear. I didn’t realize I would be gone so long. But that doesn’t mean you can take chances like that. What if someone had seen you fall?” She knew there was a silent and heal tacked onto the end of that sentence. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her a few feet back from the railing. Noting the worried look on Claire’s face, Noah decided his safety talk could wait a little while. “Never mind. I found Mohinder. He’s a little banged up and a lot out of it but it looks like he’ll be okay.”
Claire bit her lower lip. “And the others?”
“Niki and Parkman are fine. They are being debriefed as we speak.”
“But what about -“
Noah laid his hands on her shoulders. The expression on his face was one of calm yet Claire wasn’t reassured.
“I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to talk with Niki or Parkman yet. And Mohinder’s not making much sense at the moment. He’s been going on about pink elephants and their DNA for the last forty minutes.” Noah shook his head. “Look, we’ll find him. I promise. My guess is they got separated when they got off the plane. From what I heard, it was a madhouse. He’s probably searching for the others so let’s be where they are.”
Claire nodded wearily.
Noah glanced to the nearby restroom. “Just give me a minute and we’ll go.” She nodded again as he gave Claire a quick kiss to the top of her head before striding off.
She wrapped her arms around herself tightly as she made her way back to the railing, casting a forlorn look to the dwindling crowd below. Please, she prayed, please let him be okay.
As she looked out over the railing, she froze as she sensed someone behind her. Could it be? She always had a sense of when he was near and couldn’t be more grateful for it than right now. She glanced over her shoulder and her breath left her. The noise from below ceased to exist for her. Nothing existed anymore but the two of them.
Not ten feet away stood Peter Petrelli. He looked like he had been through hell - dirty, disheveled, and exhausted beyond words. But his eyes, those beautifully expressive brown eyes, were drinking her in like he was dying of thirst and she was the only water in sight.
“Claire?” Peter whispered. His eyes never leaving hers, he dropped his knapsack and began moving towards her.
Claire blinked back tears just for a moment before launching herself at Peter. He staggered back a little bit from the force, sighing deeply as he wrapped his arms around her. Burying his face on the top of her head, he choked out “Oh God, Claire…”
Claire couldn’t help but let out a sob as she buried her face in his neck, her arms locking around his waist. Peter tightened his arms around her trembling form, one hand coming up to caress her hair. Closing his eyes, he pressed his lips to the crown of her head as the two swayed gently.
Peter raised his head slightly moments later to see Noah standing by the restroom door, watching them with a small smile on his face. He nodded to Peter (who gave him a quirk of his lips in response) and silently made his way downstairs to join the others. Peter rested his cheek on the blonde weeping in his arms. He began murmuring softly to her, endearments that were for her ears alone.
Peter pulled back just enough to lovingly cup Claire’s face, his thumbs brushing her wet cheeks. She smiled shakily up at him as she brought her hands up to stroke his dark tresses. “Peter, I lo- “
Anything else she would have said was lost as he claimed her mouth with his own.
As the kiss deepened, Claire found her world being reduced to pure sensation.
Her last coherent thought was that her father had been right. Good things come to those who wait and the best thing in her world was right where she needed him to be.
The End
Additional Author’s Notes: I can envision this as part of a longer story, although at the moment, I have a thousand plot bunnies running through my head - all of them demanding attention. But I may come back to this sometime and flesh it out a bit.