Destined, chapter 1
Title: Destined
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Peter/Claire, Zach/Claire friendship
Rating: PG
Summary: Zach's always there to listen when she talks about Peter. (Spans over a loooong period of time.) This Chapter: Claire's thoughts on the events up to and including the season finale.
A/N: It's kind of hard to explain this story. It's all from Claire's perspective and will mainly focus on her relationship with Peter. Will probably be about 30 chapters or so. Everything in italics is Claire interacting with/talking to Zach. This is my first chaptered fic in...years, so I really hope you enjoy it! ♥
Chapter One - Dying's No Big Deal
To: FilmsbyZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
Thanks for not freaking out today when I showed you what I can do. You didn't freak out last time, either, and I really appreciate it.
The ride home on your handlebars was weird, btw. Totally different from when we were kids, huh?
*
She has a hero and his name is Peter Petrelli. He saved her at Homecoming, rescued her from a man named Sylar, and died in the process. She healed him with her powers, and was shocked beyond belief that he had powers, too.
They were connected now. She had felt the connection while talking to him in that hallway, had been struck by the feeling that they might meet again. Now it was stronger, because he had saved her life.
She came to his apartment in New York City, knocked on the door, and was let in by a woman who had crinkly lines across her face, dark pink lipstick, and Peter's hair.
A woman who was apparently her grandmother.
She stands in the living room of Peter's apartment now, in a state of complete shock. Looking down at a picture of two men in suits, she recognizes Peter immediately. Her eyes gaze down at the man next to him, his brother, her father. Nathan Petrelli. She can't believe it. She doesn't know which is more crazy - the fact that she's found her father, one who is running for Congress, or the fact that Peter Petrelli is her uncle.
She realizes that this woman, her grandmother, is speaking to her. "And that handsome man is Peter, but you've already met him now, haven't you?"
"He saved my life," Claire says. "He forgot to mention that we were related." She fails to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"Oh, he didn't know. He didn't even know that you existed."
Claire finds a little relief in this news - for once, someone who hasn't lied to her - but it doesn't outweigh the feeling of intense nausea in her stomach.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
I know you're probably worried about me and wondering where I am. I'm safe. I think. I'm in New York, actually. I came here to find Peter Petrelli - you know, the guy that saved my life. Turns out that he's my uncle. And I saved his life today. I'll tell you more when I see you, though I don't know when that'll be. A lot's going on right now.
*
She's lying in the bed (she refuses to think of it as her bed) and she has never felt more out of place. The sheets are too scratchy, and there are too many pillows and no stuffed animals in sight. Sighing, she sits up and leans over to the nightstand next to her. She opens the drawer and pulls out the gun, running her fingers over the black metal.
He's insane. Absolutely insane. She's put up with a lot in her lifetime, but she's never heard anything as outrageous as this. Peter wants her to shoot him in order to save the world. He had given her the gun today, telling her that this was the only way to stop the bomb from going off.
It's all she's been able to think about. Part of her wants to believe him, believe that she's really a part of something. She wants to believe that she can actually do it - that she can actually look her hero in the eye and kill him so that millions can be saved.
But even though she took the gun from his hands, even though she decided to stay in New York, the rational part of keeps repeating This is crazy in her head.
She hears a knock on the door. "Come in," she says, still looking down at the gun.
"Hey."
Claire looks up, sees Peter framed in the doorway. "Hi."
"How are you?" he asks.
She puts the gun back in the drawer, then takes a moment before saying, "Fine, I guess."
"I told my mother that you're not going to Paris," he says, his mouth twitching a little into a smile.
She can't help but smile back briefly. "What'd she say?"
"She didn't take it very well, but I guess it's a small price to pay when it comes to saving the world."
"You mean like you dying?" Claire says, and the words come out harsher than she expects them to.
Peter lets out a soft sigh and sits down next to her on the bed. "I can regenerate, remember? All you'd have to do is take the bullet out. Dying's no big deal, right?"
Claire tries to smile, but she can't. Instead she feels her eyes well up with tears and she shifts away from him, refusing to meet his eyes, refusing to let him see her cry.
"I'll be alright, Claire, I promise," he says.
She takes a deep breath, nods, then turns back around to face him, looking up at him with watery eyes. "I know," she says. "It's destiny."
He smiles then, and gives her one of those awkward one-armed hugs, and she thinks that if he believes in all of this so much, then she will, too.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
I thought I would be in Paris by now. My bio-grandma wanted to send me there and so did Nathan (it doesn't feel right calling him bio-dad), but Peter stepped in. He wants me to save the world instead. I'm so scared, but I trust Peter. I wish you were here. You'd do something stupid that would make me laugh. Please give my mom a hug for me, okay?
*
The air is thick with tension and Claire doesn't know how to clear it. They've just barely managed to escape capture by the FBI, and she's still shaking. She keeps seeing Ted's defeated face in her mind as the officers tackled him to the ground. Peter is obviously a little anxious as well, but he's hiding it much better than she is.
"Do you think Ted's going to be okay?" she asks Peter, finally breaking the silence between them.
He glances over at her quickly before turning his eyes back to the road. "I'm sure he'll be fine," he says, but she knows he's lying.
She lets out a sigh and goes back to staring out the window.
"So - when's your birthday?" Peter bursts out suddenly and Claire looks toward him in surprise.
"What?"
"Well, I've missed all your birthdays and I'm your uncle." He grins slightly. "Kinda sad, right?"
"It's September 13," she says proudly, touched that he'd asked. "And now that you know I expect a big present from you next year. To make up for all the birthdays you missed."
He laughs, and she's pleased at this response.
"When's your birthday?" she asks.
"October 5," he answers.
She shifts in her seat so that her body is facing in his direction. She hesitates only for a second before saying, "How old are you?"
"Too old," he says, but he's smiling.
"How old is 'too old'?" she probes him, genuinely wanting to know.
"I'm 26."
"That's not old," she says, rolling her eyes.
"How old are you?"
"How old do you think I am?"
They've reached a traffic light and Peter guides the car to a stop, before shifting in the same way Claire did moments ago, so that they're facing each other directly. He looks her up and down quickly, and she feels her heart flutter a little against her chest, and then he shrugs. "17, 18?" he guesses.
"I just turned 16," she corrects him. "A lot of people think I'm older than I am, though." She doesn't add Because I developed earlier than all the other girls my age, because that would just be weird.
Still, even Peter looks surprised. "Homecoming Queen at 15. Congratulations," he says. Claire's stomach churns; Homecoming always brings back bad memories for her. Peter notices, and apologizes quickly.
"It's okay," she says. There's that silence again, and Claire shakes her head, hating it. "So, um, what do you do? For a living?"
The light finally turns green. "I'm a nurse," he tells her.
She smiles inwardly. It figures. "So you're a nurse by day, hero by night, huh?" she says, and he looks just the way he did when she called him a hero the first time.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
The guy who tried to kill me just killed someone else like me. We think he's planning to destroy the whole city. I'm so scared, but I feel safe with Peter. I know he cares about me. He wiped my tears away today; it was the sweetest thing.
*
Claire can't believe her ears; can't believe that Peter's own mother and brother can just stand aside and do nothing about the explosion that's going to happen (she's sure of it now), that they can watch him die, or let him be responsible for killing millions of people.
She can't believe that these people are related to her. She can't believe that Peter is related to them. Whatever anger she had been feeling towards him for lying to her has faded, and has shifted entirely to his family.
Claire stares up into Nathan's eyes, and he's telling her that everything will make sense soon, but she doesn't trust a word that comes out his mouth. "We're offering you everything you've ever wanted, Claire," says her grandmother behind her, "a place to belong...a family."
But Claire already has a family. She has a father who brings her teddy bears, a mother who wants to be her best friend, and a brother who cried when he thought she was dead.
And the one person that ever made her feel like she belonged is the one that these...people are ready to abandon when he needs them the most. Her place is beside him, and so she leans slowly to hug Nathan, then pushes him roughly away and jumps out of the window. When she picks herself off the ground, she runs to fulfill her destiny.
*
As she lifts the gun, she feels her heart breaking. Peter's hands are glowing orange-red, his face is flickering shadows, and white light bounces off of his body. He looks scared, but his intense gaze is determined, heroic, and it makes the doubt in her rise to the surface.
How can she do it? How can she kill someone so good? How can she kill the man who saved her, who made her feel like she worth something? The tears stream down her face, the gun shakes violently in her limp fingers, and she begs him to tell her there's another way.
He tells her there is no other way, tells her to shoot him, and she tries to steel herself for what she has to do to save the world.
And then it's as if everything is knocked upside down. Nathan is here and pushing down her hand, softly saying that the future isn't written in stone. He flies away with Peter and she watches, the emotion whirling throughout her and exploding like the night.
Her father comes over to her and she can't help but smile through her tears, because not only has Peter proven himself to be a hero yet again, but her bio-dad has, too.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
My dad and I are in a rental car, and we just left New York. The world's been saved and I'm finally coming home.
Read the next chapter here!
FRIEND this journal for updates.
SEE the complete list of fic I've written.
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Peter/Claire, Zach/Claire friendship
Rating: PG
Summary: Zach's always there to listen when she talks about Peter. (Spans over a loooong period of time.) This Chapter: Claire's thoughts on the events up to and including the season finale.
A/N: It's kind of hard to explain this story. It's all from Claire's perspective and will mainly focus on her relationship with Peter. Will probably be about 30 chapters or so. Everything in italics is Claire interacting with/talking to Zach. This is my first chaptered fic in...years, so I really hope you enjoy it! ♥
Chapter One - Dying's No Big Deal
To: FilmsbyZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
Thanks for not freaking out today when I showed you what I can do. You didn't freak out last time, either, and I really appreciate it.
The ride home on your handlebars was weird, btw. Totally different from when we were kids, huh?
*
She has a hero and his name is Peter Petrelli. He saved her at Homecoming, rescued her from a man named Sylar, and died in the process. She healed him with her powers, and was shocked beyond belief that he had powers, too.
They were connected now. She had felt the connection while talking to him in that hallway, had been struck by the feeling that they might meet again. Now it was stronger, because he had saved her life.
She came to his apartment in New York City, knocked on the door, and was let in by a woman who had crinkly lines across her face, dark pink lipstick, and Peter's hair.
A woman who was apparently her grandmother.
She stands in the living room of Peter's apartment now, in a state of complete shock. Looking down at a picture of two men in suits, she recognizes Peter immediately. Her eyes gaze down at the man next to him, his brother, her father. Nathan Petrelli. She can't believe it. She doesn't know which is more crazy - the fact that she's found her father, one who is running for Congress, or the fact that Peter Petrelli is her uncle.
She realizes that this woman, her grandmother, is speaking to her. "And that handsome man is Peter, but you've already met him now, haven't you?"
"He saved my life," Claire says. "He forgot to mention that we were related." She fails to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"Oh, he didn't know. He didn't even know that you existed."
Claire finds a little relief in this news - for once, someone who hasn't lied to her - but it doesn't outweigh the feeling of intense nausea in her stomach.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
I know you're probably worried about me and wondering where I am. I'm safe. I think. I'm in New York, actually. I came here to find Peter Petrelli - you know, the guy that saved my life. Turns out that he's my uncle. And I saved his life today. I'll tell you more when I see you, though I don't know when that'll be. A lot's going on right now.
*
She's lying in the bed (she refuses to think of it as her bed) and she has never felt more out of place. The sheets are too scratchy, and there are too many pillows and no stuffed animals in sight. Sighing, she sits up and leans over to the nightstand next to her. She opens the drawer and pulls out the gun, running her fingers over the black metal.
He's insane. Absolutely insane. She's put up with a lot in her lifetime, but she's never heard anything as outrageous as this. Peter wants her to shoot him in order to save the world. He had given her the gun today, telling her that this was the only way to stop the bomb from going off.
It's all she's been able to think about. Part of her wants to believe him, believe that she's really a part of something. She wants to believe that she can actually do it - that she can actually look her hero in the eye and kill him so that millions can be saved.
But even though she took the gun from his hands, even though she decided to stay in New York, the rational part of keeps repeating This is crazy in her head.
She hears a knock on the door. "Come in," she says, still looking down at the gun.
"Hey."
Claire looks up, sees Peter framed in the doorway. "Hi."
"How are you?" he asks.
She puts the gun back in the drawer, then takes a moment before saying, "Fine, I guess."
"I told my mother that you're not going to Paris," he says, his mouth twitching a little into a smile.
She can't help but smile back briefly. "What'd she say?"
"She didn't take it very well, but I guess it's a small price to pay when it comes to saving the world."
"You mean like you dying?" Claire says, and the words come out harsher than she expects them to.
Peter lets out a soft sigh and sits down next to her on the bed. "I can regenerate, remember? All you'd have to do is take the bullet out. Dying's no big deal, right?"
Claire tries to smile, but she can't. Instead she feels her eyes well up with tears and she shifts away from him, refusing to meet his eyes, refusing to let him see her cry.
"I'll be alright, Claire, I promise," he says.
She takes a deep breath, nods, then turns back around to face him, looking up at him with watery eyes. "I know," she says. "It's destiny."
He smiles then, and gives her one of those awkward one-armed hugs, and she thinks that if he believes in all of this so much, then she will, too.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
I thought I would be in Paris by now. My bio-grandma wanted to send me there and so did Nathan (it doesn't feel right calling him bio-dad), but Peter stepped in. He wants me to save the world instead. I'm so scared, but I trust Peter. I wish you were here. You'd do something stupid that would make me laugh. Please give my mom a hug for me, okay?
*
The air is thick with tension and Claire doesn't know how to clear it. They've just barely managed to escape capture by the FBI, and she's still shaking. She keeps seeing Ted's defeated face in her mind as the officers tackled him to the ground. Peter is obviously a little anxious as well, but he's hiding it much better than she is.
"Do you think Ted's going to be okay?" she asks Peter, finally breaking the silence between them.
He glances over at her quickly before turning his eyes back to the road. "I'm sure he'll be fine," he says, but she knows he's lying.
She lets out a sigh and goes back to staring out the window.
"So - when's your birthday?" Peter bursts out suddenly and Claire looks toward him in surprise.
"What?"
"Well, I've missed all your birthdays and I'm your uncle." He grins slightly. "Kinda sad, right?"
"It's September 13," she says proudly, touched that he'd asked. "And now that you know I expect a big present from you next year. To make up for all the birthdays you missed."
He laughs, and she's pleased at this response.
"When's your birthday?" she asks.
"October 5," he answers.
She shifts in her seat so that her body is facing in his direction. She hesitates only for a second before saying, "How old are you?"
"Too old," he says, but he's smiling.
"How old is 'too old'?" she probes him, genuinely wanting to know.
"I'm 26."
"That's not old," she says, rolling her eyes.
"How old are you?"
"How old do you think I am?"
They've reached a traffic light and Peter guides the car to a stop, before shifting in the same way Claire did moments ago, so that they're facing each other directly. He looks her up and down quickly, and she feels her heart flutter a little against her chest, and then he shrugs. "17, 18?" he guesses.
"I just turned 16," she corrects him. "A lot of people think I'm older than I am, though." She doesn't add Because I developed earlier than all the other girls my age, because that would just be weird.
Still, even Peter looks surprised. "Homecoming Queen at 15. Congratulations," he says. Claire's stomach churns; Homecoming always brings back bad memories for her. Peter notices, and apologizes quickly.
"It's okay," she says. There's that silence again, and Claire shakes her head, hating it. "So, um, what do you do? For a living?"
The light finally turns green. "I'm a nurse," he tells her.
She smiles inwardly. It figures. "So you're a nurse by day, hero by night, huh?" she says, and he looks just the way he did when she called him a hero the first time.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
The guy who tried to kill me just killed someone else like me. We think he's planning to destroy the whole city. I'm so scared, but I feel safe with Peter. I know he cares about me. He wiped my tears away today; it was the sweetest thing.
*
Claire can't believe her ears; can't believe that Peter's own mother and brother can just stand aside and do nothing about the explosion that's going to happen (she's sure of it now), that they can watch him die, or let him be responsible for killing millions of people.
She can't believe that these people are related to her. She can't believe that Peter is related to them. Whatever anger she had been feeling towards him for lying to her has faded, and has shifted entirely to his family.
Claire stares up into Nathan's eyes, and he's telling her that everything will make sense soon, but she doesn't trust a word that comes out his mouth. "We're offering you everything you've ever wanted, Claire," says her grandmother behind her, "a place to belong...a family."
But Claire already has a family. She has a father who brings her teddy bears, a mother who wants to be her best friend, and a brother who cried when he thought she was dead.
And the one person that ever made her feel like she belonged is the one that these...people are ready to abandon when he needs them the most. Her place is beside him, and so she leans slowly to hug Nathan, then pushes him roughly away and jumps out of the window. When she picks herself off the ground, she runs to fulfill her destiny.
*
As she lifts the gun, she feels her heart breaking. Peter's hands are glowing orange-red, his face is flickering shadows, and white light bounces off of his body. He looks scared, but his intense gaze is determined, heroic, and it makes the doubt in her rise to the surface.
How can she do it? How can she kill someone so good? How can she kill the man who saved her, who made her feel like she worth something? The tears stream down her face, the gun shakes violently in her limp fingers, and she begs him to tell her there's another way.
He tells her there is no other way, tells her to shoot him, and she tries to steel herself for what she has to do to save the world.
And then it's as if everything is knocked upside down. Nathan is here and pushing down her hand, softly saying that the future isn't written in stone. He flies away with Peter and she watches, the emotion whirling throughout her and exploding like the night.
Her father comes over to her and she can't help but smile through her tears, because not only has Peter proven himself to be a hero yet again, but her bio-dad has, too.
*
To: FilmsByZach
From: ClaireBearCheerleader
My dad and I are in a rental car, and we just left New York. The world's been saved and I'm finally coming home.
Read the next chapter here!
FRIEND this journal for updates.
SEE the complete list of fic I've written.