Characters/Pairing: Peter/Claire
Warnings: implied incest, angst
Spoilers: watch through 2x11 and you'll be fine
Disclaimer: All characters belong to NBC and Kring, not me.

She couldn't prevent the realization from escaping her lips as she whispered, "You're not what I thought you were."

With everything that had happened Peter and Claire were barely alone for a moment. Saving Nathan had been their first concern, and now Peter was conjuring every strength he had to avoid giving her any indication that he missed her more than an uncle should.

He barely glanced her way since their reunion, and he wished he could ignore the depths of love that she instinctively (though obliviously) pulsated against his skin.

Maybe his method was a little too cold, as he recognized the disappointment in her tone, the sound of disillusion.

Unsure of what she was referring to, he asked, looking past the doorway listening to Mrs. Bennett cuddle with her prized dog, "What do you mean?"

Claire noticed her words had seemed to sail past him, as if he could barely hear her. She noticed he wasn't seeing her either. He hadn't really looked at her since Nathan woke up from death like he had been sleeping. Wanting him to hear her she walked closer to him, only to inwardly gasp as he turned his back to her and laid his hands on the dresser.

"You're greater...I thought you were like me but your not." she explained feebly.

He understood. "I am like you, in some part."

She moved so she was beside him staring into his hardened face. "In the same way you're like the others you mean."

He looked up at her tear filled face, and wanted to say that she was wrong, that he was like her in a way that the others couldn't come close.

Instead he said as he pulled away from her gaze, "If you believe that you're not what I thought you were."

He walked out of the room hoping to find more oxygen in another room, but her doubt must have been a type of carbon deoxide because he couldn't remember a time his chest felt so suffocated.