(Untitled)

[morelikeasponge]

Plunk.

Plunk.

Splorch.

Plunk-unk.

Peter Petrelli is standing by the edge of the lake, half-heartedly attempting to skip stones.

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[lilmsmiraclegro]

"Peter?"

Claire is standing some distance behind him, wanting to make sure it is him before she stops pretending she's perfectly fine no really

[lilmsmiraclegro]

"Yeah," Claire insists. A second before she realises.

"...what did you just call me?"

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Peter is rubbing his forehead, hard.

"I think," he has hazily, "I should maybe," and his legs finish the sentence for him by folding abruptly.

He blinks at Claire's knees.

In anticlimactic conclusion: "Sit."

[lilmsmiraclegro]

Claire crouches quickly, hands on his shoulders as she tries to decide whether to smile or look earnestly intense.

The intense looks wins.

"You said my name. Claire. You know me?"

[morelikeasponge]

For a moment he has the strange feeling that he's balancing on the edge of something, and if he thinks too hard in any direction, he'll fall in.

"Yeah. You're --" Claire. The thing he's trying not to fall into offers a hallway, a shard of glass, an almost-empty parking garage. A gun.

His eyes refocus, and remind him that he's already sitting down and can't fall over.

"How did you do that?"

[lilmsmiraclegro]

"I didn't."

She manages a smile, which grows as she sits down in front of her very favourite uncle.

"You did. You're healing."

[morelikeasponge]

Her still very confused favorite uncle.

"The last time I saw you was..." He trails off. "What's been going on?"

[lilmsmiraclegro]

"Kind of a lot," she says, and the smile waivers.

"My ex-boyfriend was murdered."

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Another murder? he thinks, and then, Oh.

"West? You and -- Claire, I'm sorry."

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She nods, looking down at her hands and past them, her feet. Of course he's sorry.

"I haven't been home yet. I don't know what I'm going to do."

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Peter opens his mouth, considers his actual moral high ground regarding not worrying his relatives, and shuts it again.

"I don't know either," he says. "Do you want to stay here for a while?"

He starts to tug his feet around so he can sit more comfortably cross-legged, which also gives him an excuse not to look at her when he adds, "They have Sylar listed as a suspect."

[lilmsmiraclegro]

Claire nods, also looking down.

"Alanna asked if he had any enemies at home. West was one of us - he could fly."

To the first question; "Time doesn't pass out there, right? If I have to go find his parents, I want to know what to say."

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His head jerks up. "He could fly?"

-- And that's not the point. "Oh, right." He pauses. "Would you? Tell them..."

For lack of a more inclusive gesture, he waves around them.

[lilmsmiraclegro]

"what do they say about girls falling for guys like their fathers?" Claire manages with a smirk. But she promptly shakes her head. "I don't know that I can. they don't know anything about him."

Neither, actually, does Claire. They didn't date that long and he's only a minor character.

[morelikeasponge]

Peter starts to say something about how what they say about girls falling for guys like their fathers is probably that it's disturbing for their fathers' brothers to hear about it, and then remembers: "He said something to me about Nathan. West, I mean. It was...I still don't know what he was talking about."

[lilmsmiraclegro]

"What did he say?" Claire asks, sitting up and alert.