"The Day Your Hero Died" Paire oneshot
Fandom: Heroes
Title: The Day Your Hero Died
Pairing/Characters: Peter/Claire, Daphne, Knox
Rating: PG-13
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers up to Season 3 Ep 4 and speculation for further episodes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes or the Graphic Novels.
Summary: She felt her resolve strengthen, her heart shrink a little bit more as her hatred grew. The world wouldn't be like this if it wasn't for Peter, the do-gooder, the hero.
A.N: Based off the Graphic Novel, Resistance: www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/index.shtml which everyone should read anyway, 'cause it's Paire ;) Could be seen as platonic or something more, but this is set in the same timeframe as the novel, just a day later. Feedback is appreciated!
It was the day after her dreadful discovery; and she tried to pretend all was normal.
“I heard you took down part of the terrorist cell last night,” Daphne quipped, slamming to a halt in front of her at the entrance of the facility.
Claire shrugged, removing her jacket in a nonchalant manner, “So what? Attacks are still happening. It didn’t change much.”
The blonde’s eyes widened, “So you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?” Fear etched its way into her body unconsciously; had they caught up with him already?
“Peter Petrelli’s turned into the most wanted man in the United States. Upstairs found out he’s in charge of the terrorist cell and they’ve put a dead or alive warrant on him.” She could feel Daphne eyeing her, watching for any sign of emotion from the brunette, “I’ve heard they want you to take the case.”
Claire shook her head automatically, the events of last night rotating through her head on repeat, “No. Someone else can take it. Not me.”
The Speedster folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow, “You’re telling me you don’t want to take down the person who started all this mess? You’ve been so determined to be the one to finish them off -”
“If you want to finish it so badly, Daphne, you do it.” The young woman retorted, “Besides, with so many abilities under his belt, do you really think they’d send someone like me after him? This is a job for Knox or the Haitian. Not me.”
With that, she turned on her heel and started off down the corridor. Daphne watched her go, sighing as one of her fellow agents came up behind her.
“Was she scared?”
“Petrified.” Knox answered, frowning, “Not like her at all.”
---
The day couldn’t have gone on any longer for Claire; so much paperwork and not enough action. Put the constant worry of Peter’s whereabouts on her shoulders as well, and she was pretty much on edge by the time she left Pinehearst.
Sinking into a chair, Claire let out a long sigh, letting down her long, dark hair. Part of her now wished nothing more than to see Peter Petrelli die, but at the same time, he was her uncle, the only person she had left in the world that cared about her.
“What you’re doing...it’s dangerous.”
“I can’t get hurt, remember? I’m indestructible.”
“That doesn’t mean you should be doing it.”
A solitary tear slid down her face and she quickly wiped it away, frowning at herself for having given in to her emotions. Why did Peter have to turn into the bad guy, why did he have to be responsible for all those horrible things?
On the first day she was initiated into Pinehearst, Claire remembered something her instructor had told her. He’d said that now the world was changing, people you loved would become enemies, you wouldn’t know who to trust, and all you could trust was the facility and yourself. Pinehearst became her rock that she could cling to, the one thing, apart from Peter, that she knew was trying to do some good in the world, that was trying to change things for the better.
Now Peter had gone and left her solely with the facility as her guiding light. He’d become the enemy, just another target for her to shoot at. Hadn’t they warned her this would happen?
She felt her resolve strengthen, her heart shrink a little bit more as her hatred grew. The world wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for Peter, the do-gooder, the hero.
“Claire.”
Her head turned at the voice, already knowing who the owner was. Claire immediately got to her feet, fists clenched, “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know,” Peter’s face was full of remorse and apologies as he stood before her, glancing furtively around him as if he expected agents to burst in through the windows, “I just -”
“You just what?” Claire’s voice came out harsher than she intended it to, “You decided you’d try and act like everything was all normal after last night? Well you’re wrong, Peter.”
“If you’d just let me explain, Claire -”
“I don’t wanna hear your explanations.” The brunette’s eyes darkened, forcing the emotion out of her throat as she said her next words.
“I hate you.”
It was quiet, but it was there, and she watched as Peter’s eyes widened, “You don’t mean that, Claire.”
“Yes, I do. I. Hate. You. You’ve destroyed everything I’ve been working for, everything the facility has been trying to do!”
“Have you ever thought for a second that you could be on the wrong side?” Peter’s anger was rising, taking a step towards her. Claire stood her ground, letting herself be unmoved by his words.
“You’re on the wrong side.”
“No, I’m not,” Peter’s face softened, trying a different tactic to get through to her, “The formula - did you ever think Pinehearst had something to do with it? They were the ones that released the formula in the first place! It’s them you should be fighting.”
“Bullshit,” Claire looked him straight in the eyes, feeling anger ooze out of every pore in her body, “Why do you always have to be right, Peter? Huh? Why do you always have to be the one that makes the right choices? Maybe you’re wrong for once; did you ever think about that?”
Her resolve had reached maximum capacity; if she’d had a gun with her right now, she would’ve had no problem shooting him down. Even looking at him made her enraged.
“Just go, Peter.”
She turned away from him, and all was silent, making her think that maybe he’d listened to her. But the sound of footsteps crossing over to her soon reached Claire’s ears, and she took in a breath, ready to hurt him to get her message across.
“It’s all to protect you, you know,” His voice was ever so close to her ear, and Claire felt unsettled by how close his body was to hers; she could almost feel the vibrations of his voice in her back.
She breathed in again shakily as he reached a hand out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers brushing her cheek as he did so.
“I’ll always be here for you, Claire. Even if you hate me, even if you have to kill me. I’ll always love you.”
At that point, she turned around sharply, only to find nothing but air where his body had been seconds before. A sharp wave of emotion overtook her, and Claire found it hard to keep tears from falling.
“I love you too,” She whispered into the air.
---
The next day, Claire was back to business, marching straight past Daphne and Knox into the main assignment office of the facility.
“I want the Peter Petrelli case.”
She’d prove him wrong. She wasn’t on the wrong side, he was. And if he couldn’t see that, well.
Let the games begin.