Things you need to know: Set after season three end, obviously. Claire works for The Company. They all think Sylar is dead after the plan to capture him worked. Nathan came back to life after they gave him some of Claire's blood. Angela is off the radar, living quietly somewhere (oh holy Jeezes!!!!).
Warnings: mild ooc, oc,
Chapter One - Through London (Life After Terminal Five)
Best. Mission. Ever.
'Go to London. Investigate a nightclub. Suspected Special activity.' Were her orders, and damn was this the best mission ever! She took two fellow agents with her; Kelly, a Special with the ability to manipulate emotional states and West. That's right, he'd come on board as soon as Claire had tracked him down and laid out the plan for the reformed Company. It wasn't easy, persuading him to be a part of the organisation that was close enough to the one that abducted him. Claire couldn't help a small bounce of excitement as she stepped off the plane at Heathrow. She had tried to keep reminding herself that she was here for work and not all play. Though she certainly planned on doing a lot of playing. West rolled his eyes at her, she had spoken of nothing else the past couple of weeks and had gone on two shopping sprees getting new clothes so she would 'fit in' at the club. Her Dad had had to be a little more stern with her on the 'all work and no play' front, but in some ways he was glad she was able to go and do something at least vaguely normal for a while.
Noah was proud of his little girl, and though Claire had asked him to stop calling her that a hundred and one times, he couldn't think of her as anything else. She had matured (for the most part) into a determined and successful Company agent who was not only getting quite good at apprehending dangerous Specials, but was doing some good work with those who weren't a threat, who just needed a bit of support. He found this was an increasingly large department, and sending out pairs of agents to help people learn to control and use their abilities was taking up far more time and manpower than he thought it would at this stage, it had surprised him how receptive people had been to it. He thought he might like to have Claire take that department as her own one day, but for now she was content and eager still to work in the field. He said his prayers every night like a good boy and thanked each and every star he could see out of his window that she had not turned out like Elle. He was terrified when Claire had first insisted on getting onto the Company payroll that she would slowly take the slippery slope to sociopath-city, but it had seemed not. Sure, she was hard as nails now, but not a sadist or conscienceless brat as Elle was. He always admonished Bob's parenting skills as a little 'p.s.' on the end of his prayers.
Her first big mission. Daddy's Claire-bear was going out into the big wide world (and by that he meant Europe) and doing something that she couldn't just come back home from if it proved to be a little difficult. She had tried to insist on many occasions that she and West hadn't really gotten back together (just no, not yet), and Kelly would be her chaperone. 'She'll turn him gay if he tries anything.' Claire had argued. It had worked. They were now stepping onto English tarmac (though it was no different to American) and she smiled, widely.
"You alright? You look like a mad scientist whose plan to conquer the world has just come to fruition." West asked, upon seeing the slightly maniacal grin on her face.
"Best. Mission. Ever." She repeated. This had become something of a mantra for her.
"Claire, this is a mission remember, not a clubbing holiday." Kelly scolded her.
"I know, I know." This had always been the reply too. West wondered whether she had actually thought about the mission. "Investigate the club and see how many Specials, what they can do, approximate geographical distribution, discover any organisations attached to them and if any pose a threat to the populace or revealing their existence to the unsuspecting world.
Eventually they got to the conveyor belts of luggage and kept a beady lookout for their cases. Claire kept her eyes fixed on the faded belt and drifted off into space, she knew she would wake up when she saw her case – it was bright pink after all. She pictured herself in different outfits, dancing, coming up with several hundred different ideas on what the club would look like on the inside, everything from a dirty dungeon to a massive state-of-the-art warehouse. She didn't realise how long she had been dreaming because eventually she brought herself out of it and looked around to see West wasn't there, and, come to think of it, nor was Kelly. She panicked for a moment and looked around. There were no more bags on the belt, and her flight wasn't even registering on the board above them. She quickly found them arguing with an equally irate clerk behind a desk.
"Hey, what's going on?" She asked innocently, hoping not to get caught out for daydreaming.
"These idiots lost our bags." Kelly snapped and resumed the verbal onslaught and outrage with West, who was a little red in the face.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but we've done everything we can, we seem to be having a few teething problems with the Terminal Five." He explained, and it looked as though he was teething right now, he was deep red and puffed up, grinding his gnashers to try and stop him getting physical.
About three hours later, when another plane from the US landed, they finally got their luggage back and were able to walk out the airport and onto the tube. Kelly was in a foul mood, still not recovered from her argument with the clerk and West shifted uncomfortably on the train.
"What's up with you? Got ants in your pants?" Claire hissed, fed up with the fidgeting.
"Sorry, but this is underground, I like to be able to see sky. Makes me kinda nervous." He said and his knees bounced up and down as though playing some imaginary drum kit. She nodded and tried not to notice it, though it was really bugging her.
The tube took an uncomfortably long time to get to where they were going, especially considering they got off at the wrong stations twice, got lost once, took the wrong line once...the list went on. Needless to say when they checked the address of the hotel given to them by the company suddenly everything looked up, they all thought of nice hot baths and slumping in an easy chair with a stiff drink. Being twenty one Claire could drink in any state, and definitely in England, and she could almost taste the martini now, feel the cool, smooth glass in her hand instead of the rough, hot handle of her suitcase. The hotel was modest, clean and tastefully decorated, if a little plain and small, but she didn't mind. They would only be staying here for a week before they moved into an apartment owned by the Petrelli family, but for some reason wouldn't be available until seven days away. Claire decided not to ask questions from the moment the flat was brought up by Noah and they way Angela pursed her lips sourly. Claire wondered what sordid schemes were run from there, but quickly came to the conclusion that she didn't want to know, especially if she was going to be living there for the next couple of...however long this was going to take. She had known when she accepted the mission that this was probably going to be a long one. Not that she minded, in fact, she preferred it that way. She knew she had work to do, but she took it as payback for all the holidays and breaks she would have had by now like most other normal teenage girls. Ok, she wasn't a teenager any more, but you know what she meant.
They all had rooms next to each other and Claire wheeled in her case, carefully shutting the door, leaving her luggage propped up against said door in case of anyone trying to sneak in (Company training) and did a quick, but thorough search of the room, ensuring all entry and escape routes were covered and there was nothing of suspicion in the room. As usual, the search turned up negative and she took a running jump, belly flopping onto the bed which was surprisingly springy and comfortable. She purred happily to herself and snuggled into the soft sheets, feeling supremely happy. Nothing could take away her happiness at that point.