Nobody Needs to Know

Part two

Disclaimer: Not Mine

Everyone was silent. Nathan stared at his brother in shock. "You remember Claire?"

Peter looked away from me, and at his brother. "Nathan. I remember everything…."

Nathan laughed happily, then reached over and pulled Peter into a hug. Peter smiled and hugged his brother back, his eyes landing on me once again.

I was staring back. Niki was standing beside me in shock . "Nathan has been telling him every story he could think of for the last three days, and he didn't get anything. All it took was for Peter to look at you and everything came rushing back."

I heard what she said, but I wasn't really paying attention. Peter had let go of Nathan, and now he was walking up to me. "Hi Claire." He said softly.

I winced Then ran into his arms, tears running down my face. He laughed, "Nice to know you missed me." He said, hugging me tight against him.

"Of course I missed you!" I said, hugging him again.

Someone cleared their throat, and Peter pulled away quickly. Caitlin was standing beside us, glaring. "Caitlin, this Claire. My niece."

Caitlin's face relaxed and she let out a small sigh . "Niece. Oh, I thought your ex-girlfriend had come or something." She has an accent. Great. She smiled down at me. "The two of you must be really close."

I shrugged. "Actually, we met about five months ago. And he was here for four of them."

She frowned. "What?"

"It's a long story." Peter said quickly. Then he looked at me and pulled me into a hug once again, resting his chin on the top of my head.

I hugged him back. "Wow, you two got really close in that month." Caitlin observed.

Peter coughed, then let me go again. "Yeah, we did."

Caitlin was giving him a look. Nathan walked over to me. "So he gets a hug, two in fact, but you ignore your father?"

I frowned. "But I know that you're alive."

He laughed, along with Peter, then pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back, but it didn't feel like it did when I hugged Peter. I didn't feel like every part of his body touching mine was on fire…I didn't want to reach up and kiss him.

Which was probably a good thing considering he's my bio-dad.

Of course, Peter is my uncle.

God, I'm going to hell.

"So what are you going to do now?" Nathan asked Peter a little while later. We were all sitting at a table, Caitlin on Peter's right, me on his left.

Peter looked at Caitlin, then his brother, then me. "I don't know." He muttered.

I ignored the pain in my chest. Did he want to stay here with Caitlin? Did he love her that much?

"Where is Claire now?" He asked instead.

Nathan blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Is she living with you?" He asked plainly, "Or is she still in Texas with her other family?"

"Well-" Nathan started uncomfortably. "I haven't exactly told Heidi about her yet."

"It's California." I broke in.

Peter turned to me, confused. "What?"

I looked around the table. "My dad thought it would be a bad idea to go back to Texas, so we moved to California."

Peter frowned, then turned back to his brother. "Your daughter is across the country. And you don't care."

Nathan glared at him. "Of course I care Peter. I've had other things on my mind. Like finding you." He looked uncomfortable once again. "And like I said, I haven't told Heidi, and I don't think it would be right to tell her then have Claire move in right away…"

"It's fine Nathan." I put in quickly.

"No its not." Peter snapped, glaring at his brother. "Its not fine Claire. If I'm going back to New York, I want to be able to see my niece."

I winced at the N word. Then spoke. "Peter, he hasn't told Heidi. I don't have anyone to live with in New York…"

"Yes you do." Peter said, breaking into my argument. His gaze turned to me. "You can move in with me."

I froze. So did Caitlin. "You're going back to New York?" She asked softly.

Peter froze. It was obvious he forgot about her…to us anyway. Maybe it wasn't to Caitlin…

He turned to look at her. "You are welcome to come with us."

WHAT?!