Warnings: Well, Claire is 17 here. So that's legal, right?

Summary/Notes: This was written for freetheelves2, as an entry for her Sylaire Meet the Parents Challenge, a long time ago. I'm a little worried over the result, since I never had any particular interest in Claire or Sylar. So, comments are nice!

In the winter cold

As her legs threatened to give in, she started having second thoughts: maybe having that glass of – what was it again? He had called it a "stiff drink", then. He'd brought it home, in a huge bottle, claiming that she should remember their first drink together well. When she laughed and said, "Look at the size of that!" he had just looked at her, in that way he did sometimes, as if studying something new and unheard of. Despite his words, there wasn't much she remembered after that – the Stiff Drink, then, hadn't been such a good idea. In fact, looking back, this wasn't a good idea at all.

Forcing her snow-soaked feet to keep up the pace, Claire kept walking. She didn't know its exact location, so she went slowly, checking them all, one by one.

Claire felt her mind working in circles, telling her over and over why this was a bad idea, then proceeding to tell her why she should be here, and how she would do this. It had been a year, after all. She'd laugh, if this wasn't a graveyard she was in. One year.

One year ago, she was running from him, running for her life. Now she was visiting his mother's gravestone, paying her respects. For the one man that could destroy her – in more ways than one.

There were quite a few reasons why she hadn't told him of this visit. The one that really stood out, though, was that he was sure to ask her – and one really couldn't blame for doing it – why? And that would require an answer. An answer Claire wasn't all that sure she had. She came here for his mother – to meet her, in a sense – to do it for him, because she knew he wouldn't come, not now, perhaps not for a long time still. It would also mean they'd both have to come out of their very comfortable closets and talk about it.

Talking to your boyfriend about how you know he killed his mother. Should be a fun conversation.

She wasn't really thrilled by the prospect.

So, if they've gotten to the why, they'd argue, and she would have ended up staying home, not talking about it, and probably not talking at all. It's not that she thinks he wants his mother abandoned in a place like this. She sometimes thinks he would have liked to be here, too, but just can't bring himself to say it out loud. So Claire allows herself to feel like she's here for him, most of all.

She stopped. For a while, all she did was stand there and stare. The gravestone was simple and ordinary, just like the woman it belonged to, Claire suspected. Then, she got down on her knees and whispered to the cold stone before her:

"He misses you."

Taking a deep breath, she got up. Gabriel would be waiting home for her.