Claire Bennet was an average teenage girl. Or so she thougt. Before the whole indestructable thing happened. But even after she discovered that she couldn't die, not even after tremendous injuries, she still couldn't see how special she was. She wouldn't be normal at all, even without her ability. Still, in all this time Claire probably was the one girl of all the people around her, of all the people with abilities who wished hardest to be normal. Who wished hardest to live a normal life. To be an average teenage girl. In this parallel universe, which her subconscious created while she was asleep, spared by those nightmares which haunted her so often, she would have never been dragged into all this, she would have never been chased by Sylar or the company, would have never had to cope with this amount of emotional pressure and in this dreams Claire Bennett would have never met Peter Petrelli.

"And you'd be dead. Killed by accident by Brody while he was attempting to rape you", Peter objected after Claire complained about those exact things, leaving out the last point, of course. She tried not to cringe about mentioning the Brody incident. It's been almost two years but it still triggered feelings of anger and impuissance. She cannot die. She's the indestructable girl. But still she couldn't defend herself. She's not extraordinarily strong or capable of telekinesis like Sylar. She just heals. Emotional injuries not included.
"Sorry, Claire. I didn't mean to bring it up. That's not the most sensitive thing to say, I'm stupid", Peter said after recognizing her niece's tense reaction. She was staring down at the ground. He put his hand on her shoulder and instant regretted doing so. Even the slightest body contact makes him want to hold her and never letting go of her again, but it seemed like he was able to pull himself together quite well the last couple of weeks and months.
"No, it's okay", she replied after looking up. "I'm kinda over it I think. I mean, it's not like I've never been intimate with other guys after that thing with Brody. It doesn't haunt me the way it used to." She waited for his reaction, hoping for some kind of movement behind his eyes. This one strand of hair she loved so much fell in front of his eye and she was once again tempted to wipe it away from his face.
Peter hold his breath. Well, holding himself together, right? At the moment, not really. Why would she tell him something like that? For one second he was a little relieved but short after that he tried to get rid of that smile he was about to let through his veneer. It didn't make the slightest bit of a difference! So she wasn't as innocent as she feared her to be, okay, great. But she's still off limit. She will always be off limit! She's only 18 years old and his brother's goddamn daughter!
He chuckled. It sounded quite natural, or at least he hoped so. "I don't think, that's any of my business, Claire." Peter smiled at her trying to seem amused, his strand of hair still hanging in front of his face.
Claire sighed, then smiled back hat him. "You're right uncle Pete, sorry."
She should really stop trying to get hints of something that probably didn't even exist.
"I don't get why you want to be normal."
"I know. That's because you want all this. You wanna be a hero. You want to fly or read minds. You want an adventure. All I want is to live a normal life. Without people getting killed, without the fear that my dad's going to get hurt, or mom, or Nathan.. or you!", her voice broke a little at the last bit. "How can you even ask, why I don't want all this crap?", she now yelled at him.
"I'm sorry, Claire, okay?" Peter wasn't that silent now as well. "I know, this is all fucking hard for you. But don't for one second think it's not hard for me too! I don't `want all this`! Do you really think I want to see you digging up graves? Or being chased by the government?"
"I can handle that kind of stuff."
"And that's what bothers me. You're 18, Claire! You're not supposed to be confronted with such things."
"You're supposed to grow up at the age of 18", she answered.
"Not like this. You're supposed to go to college, be young, drink alcohol, make mistakes..." He hesistated. "...make out with boys."
"What makes you think, I'm not doing that?", she glanced at him with a smile, trying to calm down the situation. He couldn't help but imagine her kissing some boys. It made him more furious than it should have.
"Besides, is this making out with boys falling under making mistakes?"
"Depends on the boy...", he looked at her and their eyes met.
Crap! She usually avoids this sort of situations because she's too afraid to get lost in his beautiful, brown eyes. Fuck, that wasn't a good idea at all. Both of them looked at eachother without breaking eye contact once. There wasn't anything he wanted more in this moment than to kiss her. His mind was working really hard. Why did she have to be so beautiful? She was looking right at him through her long lashes. He almost surrendered.
No! He reminded himself. She's your fucking niece! That would be so wrong!
She turned her head away. Thank god!
"What's the name of the last book you read?" She tried to change subject. That was really close. Why did he stare at her like that? Did he know?
"Umm.. I don't know."
"And that's the point", she explained. "I already told you guys. It's been a while since I've read something or just watched a movie. Last time I intented too, Doyle broke into our house. I wouldn't be here, if I had not helped him. I wouldn't be part of all this, if I would just be an average girl."
"Well then I'm glad, Doyle showed up."
"Why the heck would you say something like that?", she asks getting upset again.
He plucked up his courage, risking to say too much: "I haven't seen you in a while."
Oh, okay. That was cute. Could he please stop being cute? She had to smile about that. God damnit!
"Did you miss me?", she asked daringly.
"Of course I did... You're my little niece."
Ouch! Did he really have to remind her of that? Peter smiled back at her, even though all he wanted to do is hold her and tell her that she's more than that.
"Listen, I'm glad you're not normal. You're the strongest woman I know, Claire. Even without your ability you'd still be special to me", he struggled. "...to anyone in this family! You're far ahead for your age. Can't you just try to be proud of yourself?"
"I don't know... maybe you're right", she agreed. "This kind of reminds me of our first meeting. You said something similiar back then. You remember?"
"Of course, I remember."
How could he ever forget? He remembered exactly how he first saw the blonde cheerleader who he was going to fall in love with soon after that.
She sighes again and rested her head on his shoulder. That was okay, right? That's something niece and uncle are allowed to do. Nothing more. But at least this.