Five Years Later (2/?)
Title: Five Years Later
Genre: ROUND ROBIN
Pairing: Peter/Claire
Rating: PG
Spoilers: S1
Word Count: 1,415
A/N: This is a multi-author challenge coordinated and started within the PAIRE community. This chapter was written by me (
comiskey). Thanks to
cold_queen_5 for organizing everything and
nayden for serving as the beta of my chapter!
Summary: We've seen the dark future brought on by New York's destruction...but what does the future hold now?
Prologue
Living An Incomplete Life
It was weird for her to be back in this room after a few years away at college living in an apartment of her own, even if it was only going to be for a couple of weeks. This place never really felt like home anyway. The home she’d grown up in was an empty lot across town and the house her Dad purchased to replace it, even though it was bigger and technically better, could never measure up.
She didn’t even decorate her room after they’d moved in because she didn’t see the point. Claire let her room stay sparse because that’s how she felt: incomplete.
There were some boxes stored up in the attic that she never unpacked. If she hadn’t needed what was in them five years ago, she certainly wasn’t going to bother unpacking them anytime soon.
Those boxes were a part of her old life anyway. They were the possessions of a girl whose biggest worries were her popularity and SAT scores. She wasn’t that girl anymore. She hadn’t been that girl for a long time.
Claire’s gaze traveled over her nightstand. It was the most personal place in this bedroom and she’d brought most of its contents back from her apartment. There was a bear that her father had given her - the one from New York - and the necklace her mom had given her for her sixteenth birthday. Her blue CD player held a mix CD that Lyle made for her ages ago. She would play it sometimes when she missed him. Finally, a small photo album rested on the wood beside the CD player.
She knew the photos by heart. Most of them were from her childhood: pictures of her, her parents, and Lyle. Some were of light-hearted pictures of her and friends. There was one of Jackie, so Claire would never be tempted to try and forget what happened to her. There was one of Zach, who’d been her best friend twice over until saving the world and life and college had gotten in the way and they’d lost touch. She’d even taken snapshots of some of Isaac Mendez’s paintings and they were in there too.
And, hidden in the back of the album, there was a photo of Peter Petrelli.
When she’d gone to find Peter in New York and found his mother and the Haitian instead, a package of recently developed photos had been on his kitchen countertop. Claire had flipped through the photos intending to leave them all as she found them, but she couldn’t help slipping a single smiling picture of him into her bag.
If she didn’t have that picture of Peter, she might be in danger of forgetting what he looked like. It turned out that although he could save the cheerleader once and be done with it, saving the world was a constant and unending job. And it was a job that she couldn’t be a part of.
The last time Peter had stayed around long enough for the two of them to have a proper conversation, Claire told him that she wanted to go along on his next mission. He steadfastly refused to let her.
“I want to help.”
“Claire,” he replied with a bittersweet smile, “you don’t have to be a part of this.”
“I want to be, Peter,” she said as she grabbed his hand in emphasis.
“You have college and friends,” he said when he pulled his hand out from underneath hers. “You can have a normal life. You don’t have to be like the rest of us.”
Only Claire wasn’t sure if she wanted normal anymore. She missed the rush and the excitement. She missed being around people who really understood who she was. She missed feeling like she was a part of something important. Exams and part-time jobs seemed pointless after trying to stop an explosion.
Most of all, she missed Peter.
Claire admitted with a shake of her head that it was sort of silly to miss someone she barely knew. With a deep sigh, she sat down on the quilted coverlet of her bed and played with the fraying edges of the fabric.
Not that she hadn’t tried to get to know him better.
When Peter returned after the explosion, he’d stop by Odessa every couple of months, but it was always to talk to her dad about some new danger that they wouldn’t tell her about. Apparently they both still felt the need to protect her by keeping her in the dark. It only made Claire feel more alone.
Sometimes when she would call home from school, her dad would tell her that Peter came by and stayed for dinner. He never did that when she was home.
“Peter said to say hi,” her dad would always tell her.
“Tell Peter to stop being an idiot,” she always wanted to reply.
Instead, she kept silent.
She concentrated on school and made new friends there. She ignored the jealousy that crept up whenever Peter would breeze through Texas and see her father but not her. She tried not to stay up nights wondering where he was or what evil he was fighting.
She tried not to be pissed off at the man who saved her life all those years ago.
They’d been brought together by fate, but fate didn’t always keep people together. Fate didn’t always let you spend time with the people you felt connected to.
Maybe, to Peter, she’d been just another mission. Something else on the “Save the World” checklist.
The last time Claire saw Peter was two months ago. It wasn’t the happy reunion she expected.
It never was.
“Peter!” She threw her arms around him as he entered the house. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I didn’t know you were going to be home this weekend,” Peter said as he awkwardly patted her on the back.
“Yeah, it was a last minute decision.” Claire grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the living room couch and sat down. He sat down next to her, but kept sneaking glances back to the empty hallway. “Now I’m glad you’re here because I really want to talk to you about something. I want to take some time off from college and since I almost have all of my credits anyway it won’t be that big of a deal and -”
“Claire,” Peter interrupted, “I really can’t talk right now. I need to see Noah and it’s really important -”
“And I’m not,” she said softly as he stood up and pulled his arm from her grip.
“It’s not like that.”
She looked him in the face with defiance and told herself that this one slight out of a hundred wasn’t going to cause her to break down in front of him.
“Apparently it is.”
Claire left Peter standing there and didn’t look back as she walked away.
She remembered crying in this bedroom after that meeting and staining the quilt with her tears. She wasn’t vain enough to believe she was anywhere near as important as saving the world, but it hurt that Peter couldn’t even pause long enough to have a single conversation with her. What the hell was wrong with the world now anyway?
“Claire,” her father yelled from downstairs, “dinner’s almost ready.”
“I’ll be right down!”
Above Claire’s nightstand was a calendar and today’s date was circled in black marker. November 8th, 2011. She touched the circled square with her index finger. Five years since the explosion. Had it really been that long?
Claire let her mind drift back to that night in Kirby Plaza. Her fingertips touched the blue quilt, but she could feel the cold metal of a gun against her shaking hand. In the safety of her bedroom, she let herself imagine a New York breeze against her face and the look on Peter’s face as she begged him for a way out of the thing she’d promised to do.
“Tell me there’s another way,” she pleaded. “Please!”
“Shoot me. There is no other way.”
Peter was ready to sacrifice himself to save the city, but Claire couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger.
Nathan Petrelli had appeared like an answer to her prayers that night and she would always be thankful that he made the difficult choice when she couldn’t.
Before she could go further down that train of thought, the sound of the doorbell jolted Claire back to the present.
-
A/N: I was really excited to write this chapter so I hope you liked it!
Genre: ROUND ROBIN
Pairing: Peter/Claire
Rating: PG
Spoilers: S1
Word Count: 1,415
A/N: This is a multi-author challenge coordinated and started within the PAIRE community. This chapter was written by me (
comiskey). Thanks to
cold_queen_5 for organizing everything and
nayden for serving as the beta of my chapter!
Summary: We've seen the dark future brought on by New York's destruction...but what does the future hold now?
Prologue
Living An Incomplete Life
It was weird for her to be back in this room after a few years away at college living in an apartment of her own, even if it was only going to be for a couple of weeks. This place never really felt like home anyway. The home she’d grown up in was an empty lot across town and the house her Dad purchased to replace it, even though it was bigger and technically better, could never measure up.
She didn’t even decorate her room after they’d moved in because she didn’t see the point. Claire let her room stay sparse because that’s how she felt: incomplete.
There were some boxes stored up in the attic that she never unpacked. If she hadn’t needed what was in them five years ago, she certainly wasn’t going to bother unpacking them anytime soon.
Those boxes were a part of her old life anyway. They were the possessions of a girl whose biggest worries were her popularity and SAT scores. She wasn’t that girl anymore. She hadn’t been that girl for a long time.
Claire’s gaze traveled over her nightstand. It was the most personal place in this bedroom and she’d brought most of its contents back from her apartment. There was a bear that her father had given her - the one from New York - and the necklace her mom had given her for her sixteenth birthday. Her blue CD player held a mix CD that Lyle made for her ages ago. She would play it sometimes when she missed him. Finally, a small photo album rested on the wood beside the CD player.
She knew the photos by heart. Most of them were from her childhood: pictures of her, her parents, and Lyle. Some were of light-hearted pictures of her and friends. There was one of Jackie, so Claire would never be tempted to try and forget what happened to her. There was one of Zach, who’d been her best friend twice over until saving the world and life and college had gotten in the way and they’d lost touch. She’d even taken snapshots of some of Isaac Mendez’s paintings and they were in there too.
And, hidden in the back of the album, there was a photo of Peter Petrelli.
When she’d gone to find Peter in New York and found his mother and the Haitian instead, a package of recently developed photos had been on his kitchen countertop. Claire had flipped through the photos intending to leave them all as she found them, but she couldn’t help slipping a single smiling picture of him into her bag.
If she didn’t have that picture of Peter, she might be in danger of forgetting what he looked like. It turned out that although he could save the cheerleader once and be done with it, saving the world was a constant and unending job. And it was a job that she couldn’t be a part of.
The last time Peter had stayed around long enough for the two of them to have a proper conversation, Claire told him that she wanted to go along on his next mission. He steadfastly refused to let her.
“I want to help.”
“Claire,” he replied with a bittersweet smile, “you don’t have to be a part of this.”
“I want to be, Peter,” she said as she grabbed his hand in emphasis.
“You have college and friends,” he said when he pulled his hand out from underneath hers. “You can have a normal life. You don’t have to be like the rest of us.”
Only Claire wasn’t sure if she wanted normal anymore. She missed the rush and the excitement. She missed being around people who really understood who she was. She missed feeling like she was a part of something important. Exams and part-time jobs seemed pointless after trying to stop an explosion.
Most of all, she missed Peter.
Claire admitted with a shake of her head that it was sort of silly to miss someone she barely knew. With a deep sigh, she sat down on the quilted coverlet of her bed and played with the fraying edges of the fabric.
Not that she hadn’t tried to get to know him better.
When Peter returned after the explosion, he’d stop by Odessa every couple of months, but it was always to talk to her dad about some new danger that they wouldn’t tell her about. Apparently they both still felt the need to protect her by keeping her in the dark. It only made Claire feel more alone.
Sometimes when she would call home from school, her dad would tell her that Peter came by and stayed for dinner. He never did that when she was home.
“Peter said to say hi,” her dad would always tell her.
“Tell Peter to stop being an idiot,” she always wanted to reply.
Instead, she kept silent.
She concentrated on school and made new friends there. She ignored the jealousy that crept up whenever Peter would breeze through Texas and see her father but not her. She tried not to stay up nights wondering where he was or what evil he was fighting.
She tried not to be pissed off at the man who saved her life all those years ago.
They’d been brought together by fate, but fate didn’t always keep people together. Fate didn’t always let you spend time with the people you felt connected to.
Maybe, to Peter, she’d been just another mission. Something else on the “Save the World” checklist.
The last time Claire saw Peter was two months ago. It wasn’t the happy reunion she expected.
It never was.
“Peter!” She threw her arms around him as he entered the house. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I didn’t know you were going to be home this weekend,” Peter said as he awkwardly patted her on the back.
“Yeah, it was a last minute decision.” Claire grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the living room couch and sat down. He sat down next to her, but kept sneaking glances back to the empty hallway. “Now I’m glad you’re here because I really want to talk to you about something. I want to take some time off from college and since I almost have all of my credits anyway it won’t be that big of a deal and -”
“Claire,” Peter interrupted, “I really can’t talk right now. I need to see Noah and it’s really important -”
“And I’m not,” she said softly as he stood up and pulled his arm from her grip.
“It’s not like that.”
She looked him in the face with defiance and told herself that this one slight out of a hundred wasn’t going to cause her to break down in front of him.
“Apparently it is.”
Claire left Peter standing there and didn’t look back as she walked away.
She remembered crying in this bedroom after that meeting and staining the quilt with her tears. She wasn’t vain enough to believe she was anywhere near as important as saving the world, but it hurt that Peter couldn’t even pause long enough to have a single conversation with her. What the hell was wrong with the world now anyway?
“Claire,” her father yelled from downstairs, “dinner’s almost ready.”
“I’ll be right down!”
Above Claire’s nightstand was a calendar and today’s date was circled in black marker. November 8th, 2011. She touched the circled square with her index finger. Five years since the explosion. Had it really been that long?
Claire let her mind drift back to that night in Kirby Plaza. Her fingertips touched the blue quilt, but she could feel the cold metal of a gun against her shaking hand. In the safety of her bedroom, she let herself imagine a New York breeze against her face and the look on Peter’s face as she begged him for a way out of the thing she’d promised to do.
“Tell me there’s another way,” she pleaded. “Please!”
“Shoot me. There is no other way.”
Peter was ready to sacrifice himself to save the city, but Claire couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger.
Nathan Petrelli had appeared like an answer to her prayers that night and she would always be thankful that he made the difficult choice when she couldn’t.
Before she could go further down that train of thought, the sound of the doorbell jolted Claire back to the present.
-
A/N: I was really excited to write this chapter so I hope you liked it!