taxonomites | 005: [Visual] [Location: Walking around near the Sanctuary] No news is good news.

Current Mood: disappointed

Entry tags:

005: [Visual] [Location: Walking around near the Sanctuary] No news is good news.

(OOC: This is a canon update to Heroes 4x08: Shadowboxing. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

It had been a bad day from the moment she had woken up. The idea of getting some kind of memory upgrade wasn't new to Claire, but the memories were. She could clearly remember Gretchen saying that she wasn't like her before she left, and how lonely she had felt sleeping in an empty dorm room. Her dad had almost killed Becky - to protect her, as usual. He wanted her to have the millions of normal things that she wanted but was never going to get. If Becky wasn't standing in her way, someone else would be.

As she started out of the Sanctuary, her thoughts drifted back to Sylar and his 'identity crisis'. She wanted to believe that she was wrong, but everything in her said otherwise. Every time she tried to think up another way to explain what Angela had said to her, she came up empty. And it wasn't just what she had said, it was the fact that she had never heard anything about Nathan being in trouble after that. Nathan hadn't mentioned it and didn't have any memories beyond that day. She kept catching up to the way things could have been at home, but his mind wasn't doing that. His memories stopped in that hotel room.

Gretchen was lucky to have gotten out when she could, because she was right; this was everyday life for Claire. The people she cared about were always in trouble. If they didn't leave, they ended up hurt or killed. It wasn't always her fault, but it was her life. She couldn't expect other people to give up theirs just because she cared about them. The truth was, she asked enough of people just by expecting them to believe that she had been through everything that she said she had. And she needed to stop trying to fix problems that were bigger than her with the first solution that came to mind.

Claire quickened her pace, turning her tablet on, then off, then on again as she walked. She wanted to check in on Nathan and talk to Peter, but she wasn't sure that she should do that right away. "Hey, it's -" she stopped talking, rubbing her eyes tiredly and continuing to move away from the Sanctuary.

"Nevermind, just..." If she couldn't form a sentence, she probably shouldn't have been trying to start a conversation with anyone. "Just, forget I said anything."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I asked about your mom and he said she was antsy, but that was nothing out of the ordinary when it came to you." Claire knew he wouldn't be able to connect his mom to what had happened yet. He needed the explanation first, which meant that it was time for her to start going through it. She brought him into the foyer, starting up the staircase to her left. "The day you tried to take down Sylar, your mom came to the hotel with me. She told me that something horrible was going to happen to you if she couldn't find Matt Parkman and convince him to save you."

She watched Nathan's reaction as she talked, expecting him to tell her the same thing that Peter had. It didn't feel like obsessing to her. He was a member of her family, and no one was trying to work out what had happened to him. She felt like she was doing something necessary, finding a way for him to change it. Losing two parents in one year was too much for her to think about. "I never asked what happened after she went to find him. I thought you were safe."

Peter had managed to pull himself out of bed, somehow, and not giving much explanation to Max as why the tablet hit the wall. He pulled on a t-shirt and black sweat pants to head to the kitchen to get something to eat. Hitting the stairs, though, he felt a wave of exhaustion hit from abusing the healing power he got from Jeremy. He hadn't used it in Taxon, but apparently his body felt the need to reflect the memories. Wonderful.

Peter grabbed onto the railing with one hand and placed the other against his forehead.

There were half a dozen questions floating through Nathan's mind at the moment, but it'd have to wait for the time being. Nathan caught Peter out of the corner of his eye, and immediately looked over at him. "Pete?"

As if they didn't have enough going on. Nathan moved quickly to the stairs and got up far enough to stop Peter from falling. "Are you alright?" He caught his shoulder, frowning at him. "Come on, sit down." Whatever it was, he really didn't want to have to stop him from rolling down the stairs. Even if Claire wasn't that far away.

Claire followed Nathan up the second she spotted Peter, letting him steady Peter and then grabbing on to his arm, too. She helped him guide Peter up the staircase and stopped at the top, her eyes wandering from Nathan to Peter, and back again. Seeing how weak he was made her feel a little guilty for the way she had cut him off. It was just difficult hearing those things from him when she knew it was important.

She wanted to ask him if he was alright, but she held back. He was very clearly not alright, and they weren't on the best terms right now. Besides, Nathan instantly went into action when Peter was the one in trouble, and she didn't want to overstep. He could handle this, and then they could go to her room to discuss what had happened at the hotel. Peter looked like needed rest more than anything else. Nathan would make sure that he got it.

"I'm fine, Nathan, really." He mumbled as he felt himself be pushed own on the stairs. He looked up at them, finding Claire and Nathan. That explained why Nathan was there, at least. Though he felt like he should go and avoid Claire. She didn't understand what he meant and he didn't feel like trying to explain himself.

Actually, he'd rather just go back to bed and sleep some more.

"Yeah, you look it." He was sarcastic, but there was a small smile somewhere in there too. Nathan crouched down in front of Peter, glancing back over his shoulder to Claire and nodding to her to let her know it'd be alright.

"Does this have something to do with the memories?" If they were getting physical, and Peter was this worn out, they were also getting dangerous. "When did this start?"

"If it was that, wouldn't it have happened the first time?" Claire asked, directing her question to Nathan, in spite of knowing that he had less experience with it than the two of them. She was assuming that any exhaustion associated with new memories wouldn't have been a problem for her . It wasn't that she couldn't get tired, but he was acting like he was sick; drained. Things like that usually didn't work on her.

"Wait, you picked up Jeremy's healing?" This time, Claire was definitely asking Peter what had happened. She'd been there when they were trying to find someone to help Hiro. It could have been a side effect of the ability, but her dad hadn't mentioned anything about that. "How many people did you heal with it, Peter?"

"Yeah, I did." Peter took in another deep breath and looked up at the two, giving his infamous grin. That one that said 'I'm going to help people even if it kills me.' Even if most the time it did actually kill him. He just always sort of bounced back from it.

"There was a really bad crash." was the best answer he had. Peter had lost count of how many people he was healing.

Nathan shook his head at Claire. He didn't know, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. If they could get physical, what would happen when something serious happened to one of them? And what would happen to him if he ever found out the rest of what happened in that hotel room?

"Let's just hope it doesn't get any worse." This wasn't really something he could get after Peter for, it'd happened sometime ahead of their timeline and was out of his control, as far as he could tell.

"Take my healing, it'll fix it," she told Peter, making it more of an order than an offer. His body didn't appear to be hurt, but it would be if he kept straining himself trying to save everyone with that ability. He had picked it up trying to find a way to help Hiro, and Hiro wasn't in Taxon to benefit from this. She took his hand in hers, hoping that he'd pick up her ability before he could think about it. Peter having this one was dangerous.

Their earlier conversation hadn't been forgotten, but Claire wasn't about to walk out on Peter when he needed their help. They could get him settled before they jumped back into things. Time was something they had plenty of here, and she wasn't in any rush to get back to explaining why Angela was more twisted than they had thought. "Come on."

His eyebrows raised as Claire grabbed his hand. Peter shook his head and looked back at Nathan. "It's only because of how much I used it. A day or so? I'll be fine." He didn't think that he'd have the problem Jeremy did with the darker side manifesting. And he wasn't going to say the other reason why he was tired that morning.

"Really. I'll be fine."

Nathan was almost happy to have something to argue with all of the sudden. "Peter." He got out of Claire's way, sitting down next to Peter on the stairs. "You don't know if overdoing it did any damage."

He nodded to Claire's hand. "It'll help, and you'll probably wind up with something else if these new memories keep coming anyway." If holding onto Claire's ability was really that much of a problem for him. "Come on, we talked about being a little more careful, right?"

"Nathan has a point," Claire insisted, not letting go of him. If anything, she gave his hand a small squeeze, trying to encourage him. "Your powers are changing with your memories. Something else will pop up next time, and you're not working for a hospital here." He didn't have to tell her that people were still getting hurt, but most of the injuries in Taxon were things that could be cured with blood.

"You're no good to anyone like this." Did he need that remember? Because she wasn't going to stop giving it, even if it was completely unnecessary.

Claire pointing out his lack of profession just made his expression turn sour. And all of it was just making him feel useless. He knew that really wasn't what Nathan and Claire were going for. He just already felt that way when remembering all the things he could do at home. Now there really wasn't a way for him to help people.

Peter pushed himself up and tugged his hand away gently.

That wasn't helping. Nathan watched Peter get up, more in case he was going to fall than anything else, before he started rising himself. "You can't help anyone else if you don't take care of yourself." He thought they'd gotten somewhere before, but apparently not.

"We're looking out for you." Since he was so intent on not doing it for himself. "That's it. Just like we talked about."

Claire stepped back when Peter pulled away from her, letting her gaze wander to the floor and waiting for Nathan to resolve this. She knew what she thought would be good for him, and that was to switch this ability out before he hurt himself trying to save people. If he wouldn't listen, well, she wasn't feeling up to forcing him. He'd misinterpreted her intentions once already, and it wasn't even noon yet. She wasn't going to push for another opportunity to feel like an idiot in front of him.

So she stood there quietly, pretending to be very interested in the carpet and trying not to look like she was taking all of this personally, even though she was. That was another argument that she didn't want to have with either one of them.

"Right, looking out for me." Peter couldn't help but be defensive. "All I've had done is my judgments and my actions questioned. And when I tell Claire that I'm worried but still want to know what she thinks? She tells me to forget about it."

He turned his attention to Claire for a moment then looked back at Nathan. "I'm useless here, Nathan. I can't do anything to help anyone here. I piss off Claire, me helping Gabriel - Sylar - apparently isn't the right choice either. And there's no place for me at the hospitals or even helping Magnus. So, what the hell am I supposed to do? Get rid of the one thing that makes me feel like I can do something?"

Edited 2009-11-13 06:44 (UTC)

Nathan didn't want to get irritated, but he could feel it coming. Yes, it was hard, and he knew how badly Peter wanted to help out, but this was ridiculous. "You're not useless, Peter. You told me yourself when I got here you'd been throwing yourself into the line of fire and getting nearly hacked up in the process to keep whoever it was from hurting anyone else."

Which was just such a logical approach. "If this ability is affecting you negatively, and you don't let Claire help with the damage, it'll wear you down to nothing. Then you'll be no good to anyone. I know you, in whatever time all these memories are coming from, you'll probably cling to this new ability. It'll come back. You, if you don't take care of yourself, won't."

He wasn't telling him anything he already knew, how was it they kept having this conversation? "You're not the only one that's having a hard time here, we have to take care of each other until we can figure this out." Nathan held down a glare, but it wasn't easy.

"We need you. So do me this favor, alright?"

Claire wanted to point out that him helping Sylar was bad because he was helping Sylar, but she held back. She couldn't help but be defensive when he was acting like she wasn't supposed to be hurt by what he said. All she had wanted was for him to listen to her, and if he wanted to call her obsessed after he had heard what she had to say, then that was fair. What he'd done by jumping to that part wasn't fair to her. She couldn't help but worry about Nathan, the same way she worried about him.

Seeing how he seemed to be pretty pissed off at her for getting upset, she doubted there was much she could say to get him to go for this. Nathan had asked him for a favor, and that would have to be enough. Anything she said was just going to make it worse. And truthfully, there wasn't much that she wanted to say to him.

Peter's face fell into a straight one at the expression both of them had. He was pretty sure that Nathan and Claire would do fine without him. Not that he wanted to leave them, but he still didn't feel like he was helping enough. He knew what Nathan was saying was true. And right. But, it still felt off. Maybe it was just because of all the feelings that came with the memories. He was still convinced that Nathan was alright back home. Something just threw him off, made him worried. Which made Peter worry that Claire was just trying to find ways to make sure Gabriel met the same fate he did back home.

He brushed past the two, hand brushing up against Claire's arm as he gently moved her to the side. Peter turned to lean against the banister, arms folded as he continued to listen to the rest of what Nathan was saying. Favors. Peter didn't feel like giving favors. All he wanted was everyone to get along while they were there, and they couldn't even manage that.

Before he could respond, he shut his eyes. Another wave of exhaustion hit him. He shook his head slightly to try and push it back, hand going behind him to grab onto the banister. Except, when he felt for it, it wasn't there. It was a little weird so he reached further out for it. Peter snapped his eyes open as he felt himself lean over the banister. He tried to grab onto the banister as his feet slipped as well, but they refused to respond. The next thing he felt was hitting something hard and everything going black.

It was likely dumb shock that made him slower to move than he should've been, but when Nathan grabbed for Peter, he didn't reach him in time. Eyes wide, he watched his brother go over the banister and ran down the stairs to get to him. "Peter!"

If he survived this, Nathan was going to strangle him. "Claire, hurry up!" He wasn't moving, and he didn't look like he was breathing. Dropping down to his knees, it wasn't that hard to tell from that angle that his neck was broken. "Did he get your ability?" He hadn't been able to tell.

The second she saw Peter take a backwards dive off of the banister, Claire climbed over it and jumped down after him. She didn't even cringe at the sound of her bones breaking when her legs trying to support her weight and instead forced her flat on the floor. Luckily, she landed next to Peter, getting there seconds before Nathan.

"I don't know," she answered frantically, her eyes quickly scanning his body for the worst injuries. The back of his his head was bleeding and she ran her hand gently over his scalp, pushing his hair to the side to see if he was healing. "He got it. He's healing." She breathed a sigh of relief, trying to straighten him up so that the bones could mend properly. It would hurt, but not as much as this would have without her ability.

Well, Peter didn't know he had copied Claire's ability before falling to his death. One of them, rather. He was so used to dieing now. Well, not entirely. It didn't surprise him he died anymore. But, each time still hurt and the adrenaline rushed up through his body. Unless he broke his neck. If he hadn't of died from the cracked skull he was defiantly dead from the broken neck. What a lucky pair.

Once Claire had straightened him up, everything began to heal just as she thought it would. The bones in his neck made a sickening crack and Peter felt everything start back up. The air in his lungs, his bones aching from being broken, his head throbbing from the wound that was now gone. He gasped for breath then coughed, feeling his back crack back into the places it should of been.

He shut his eyes tight again and let out another cough followed by a groan. God, it hurt like such a bitch.

Nathan grimaced at Claire's jump, but the need to tell her he wished she really wouldn't do that as overshadowed when he started to hear bones crack again on the floor. Peter's bones. He watched them readjusting, and sighed as relief flooded him.

He gave him a minute to heal before he touched his arm. Nathan gripped it lightly, and started helping Peter sit up. And maybe half hugging him in the process. "Think we're done fighting now?" It wasn't just a question for him, but all three of them. He'd had enough of this.

Claire popped her kneecap back into place and stood up, cracking her knuckles and listening to Nathan play the peacemaker. It was a new role for him, one that made her give him a small smile and reach out to brush her hand over his shoulder while he took care of Peter. Seeing his brother and biological daughter go off of the banister had shaken him up a little, and she almost wished she had taken the stairs. Could she help it if her way was faster?

"He hurt my feelings," she said, still a little defensive as she watched Peter finish putting himself back together. It wasn't her fault that they'd been fighting. She hadn't provoked anyone this time, and didn't want to have to accept responsibility for Peter jumping the gun on what she'd been up to. "But I'm done." It was hard to hold a grudge against Peter when he was still in pain.

"You should be more careful." That was directed at Peter. Because, seriously.

Edited 2009-11-13 08:13 (UTC)

005: [Visual] [Location: Walking around near the Sanctuary] No news is good news.

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

Re: [location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

Re: [location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

Re: [location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

Re: [location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

Re: [location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]

[location: sanctuary for all]