AN: missing scene after Claire pulls the glass from Peter's head and before he's all cleaned up in the study with Nathan.
----x----
"You saved my life."
Claire smiled even as she held the piece of glass that had killed his brother. "Now we're even."
"Pete!" Nathan rushed forward, unable to contain himself any longer and wrapped his little, blood-spattered brother in a hug. Ma would correct him later, tell him that his connection to Peter was a liability, but he didn't care right now. "Pete I thought you were dead!"
"I was." Peter coughed and Nathan pulled back enough to look him in the face. Peter cast nervous glance at their mother and Nathan understood. They silently agreed that now wasn't the time to worry Ma any more than they already had done and Nathan didn't know where to start with Claire. She had only just met her real family and she was already going to be traumatised for life by them. He had thought he would at least get to know her before the Petrelli curse screwed up his daughter too.
Nathan pulled his brother to his feet and steadied him when he wavered. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up. You're covered in..." He couldn't say it...
Pete smiled crookedly, though Nathan could see in his eyes how far down the feeling went. "At least this time it's just mine."
"Come on," he said gently and pushed Peter ahead of him up the stairs.
At the top Nathan grabbed a towel from the closet and pushed his brother all the way into the bathroom.
"Get in the shower," he commanded, "I'll get you some clothes."
"Thanks Nathan," Peter said as he took the towel. Those eyes...He had been at the mercy of that look of love from his little brother ever since the little twerp was born.
He grabbed some boxers, the first shirt and pants that came to hand and set them down on top of the closed hamper. He smoothed them down, his hands shaking as they stroked the fabric absently, the steam from the shower starting to warm something inside him.
He sat on the toilet lid with a heavy sigh.
"What the hell happened Pete?" he said over the noise of the shower.
"It was Sylar," Peter's voice came muffled by the water, but it was his. He was really still here. "I went to see Mohinder and Sylar was there. He had Mohinder pinned to the ceiling. I tried to fight him, but I guess I haven't mastered all of his abilities yet."
The nonchalance in Peter's voice almost had Nathan gasping for air. "The Sylar? That whackjob that's been going around opening up people's heads? You tried to fight him?"
"There wasn't anyone else there who was going to help Mohinder, Nathan."
"Goddamnit Pete!" Nathan said, standing and going to the door. "Could you have a little sense of self-preservation?"
The cool of the room beyond was welcome after the cloying steam. How could Peter be such an idiot! Didn't he know Nathan would be nothing without him if he died? He couldn't die. Just couldn't.
The bathroom door opened behind him and Peter came out towelling his hair.
"You should call Mohinder," Nathan said. "He came here with your..." How could he say Peter's 'body' when the man himself was stood right there. "He brought you home to us. You should let him know you're not dead."
Peter nodded. "I'll do that right now." He had his phone in his hand and was just about to dial when he suddenly said. "Oh yeah, Claire."
"Claire?"
Peter put his phone away. "Yeah, Claire was downstairs, she saved me. Not that I'm complaining, because I'm really not, but how did she get here?"
This was too weird. "How do you know Claire?"
"She was the cheerleader, when I went to Texas. She's the one I saved."
No, this was too weird. "My Claire?"
"Yours?"
The confusion on Peter's face was nothing to his. This was too much. What were the chances that the girl Peter saved was his daughter?
"She's my daughter?"
"Your what?!"
Nathan put out his hands for Peter to calm down. "My daughter. I didn't even know she existed, I thought her mother was dead...I only found out about her a few days ago."
Peter held himself up on the chest of drawers and stared at the carpet. He blinked slowly and turned to Nathan. "Claire is your daughter? And her mother...?"
Nathan winced. "Do you remember Meredith?"
Peter shook his head, for which Nathan was grateful. "Not really. I was just a kid, while you...You were having kids."
"Just the one..."
A light came into Peter's face and Nathan couldn't help but smile right back.
"I have a niece," he said in wonder.
Nathan just nodded. Peter laughed and pulled his stuffy, upstanding older brother into a hug. He squeezed him for a long moment before he let Pete go. It had been so hard without him here, without the light he brought to everything.
"I have a niece! I knew there was something about Claire. Oh Nathan she is the sweetest little thing and she's fearless, you know? All the things she's had to face..."
Nathan didn't want to think about it. If his campaign was going to succeed he had to put Claire to one side, at least for now. He wanted to get to know her, to find out what her life had been like and maybe become a part of her new one if Ma would give him half a chance. He didn't want to be another one of those tough things she would have to be brave for, but he couldn't see any way out of it.
"Shouldn't you ring Suresh?"
"Oh! Yeah, I should really do that."
Nathan clapped his little brother on the shoulder, but then couldn't resist pulling him into another hug. "I love you Pete."
"I love you too Nathan."
----x----
Nathan was in his study when Peter came down.
"Suresh OK?"
Peter laughed, his hair falling into his eyes. "Yeah, once he got over the shock." He nodded towards a piece of bloodstained glass on the desk. "Is that it?"
Nathan just nodded. He didn't know what had made him bring it in here, but he just couldn't stop looking at it. That piece of glass had been buried in Peter's brain. He didn't think he was ever going to get over that.
Peter picked it up and looked at it with such concentration.
"What do you do with something that killed you?"
Nathan just wanted it gone, forget about it and move on.
"Put it under your pillow?"