Chapter Seven

With their roundabout route, it took Peter and Claire five days to reach Atlanta. Neither mentioned their interlude in Nashville, Peter stubbornly refusing to talk about it anytime Claire tried to bring it up. They made the rest of the trip mostly in an uncomfortable silence, only speaking when one wanted to stop, or one was making a phone call to the others.

Night had just fallen when they reached the city limits of Atlanta. Claire, who was driving, stopped in the first marketplace she found and waited while Peter called to find out where the others were.

Not having taken the route Peter and Claire decided on, the others arrived in Atlanta two days before. Peter got into contact with Matt, who directed them to a nearby town that had multiple motels in close vicinity to each other.

Once inside their room, Claire dropped her bag on the furthest bed, sitting on its edge, her hair draped in her eyes as she shot a glance at Peter. She caught his barely contained sigh of relief as he tossed his bag on the other bed. He reached into his pocket and tossed a small object to Claire.

"Wow, you were serious about calling as soon as we got to Atlanta weren't you." Claire stated dryly, easily catching the phone and flipping it open. "What should I say?"

"Just tell him you're okay. And anything else you want him to know."

"Should I tell him about Nathan?"

"No." Peter answered fiercely. "He's my problem."

Claire shot him a look, but decided that arguing with him over Nathan right now wasn't worth it, and prepared herself to call Noah.

She silently dialed his number, while Peter turned on the TV and set the volume low to give her some privacy.

The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Dad?" Claire asked tentatively when her father's familiar voice answered the phone. "It's me."

"Claire bear?" Noah asked clutching his phone tightly. "Where are you? What happened?"

"The plane crashed. But Peter got me out before it went down."

"Where are you? I'm coming to get you."

"No dad." Claire stated. "You can't come get me. You can't be involved."

"I am your father. I will sure as hell be involved. Your mother is frantic."

"You don't understand!" Claire cried out, causing Peter's eyes to meet hers. "They're hunting us. All of us with abilities. I can't go home and put you all in danger. Tell mom I'm fine, that we have to fix this before I can come home."

Peter's eyes shifted back to the TV as Claire continued to talk to her father.

"Claire you're too young to be involved in this. You don't understand what has to be done."

"I do understand dad." Claire said softly.

"Are you with Peter?" Noah asked.

"Yes."

"Put Peter on the phone." He stated.

"He wants to talk to you." Claire said, moving to hand the phone to Peter. He took it without words, as Claire moved to sit on the bed beside him.

"Do you know what your bother is doing?" Noah asked without preamble.

"I found out just before Claire was taken." Peter answered.

"And you're willing to do whatever it takes to fix this?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure? Even if it means killing your own brother? Are you prepared to do that?"

"If I have to."

"There is no 'if' here. To make this stop Nathan needs to be removed, those files need to be destroyed, everything has to disappear. I don't think you're ready for that."

"I am ready. He's my brother and I will do what I think is necessary to stop this."

"You will do what is necessary to protect my daughter. And the only thing that will achieve that is Nathan out of the picture. Do you understand?"

"I do." Peter answered with a sigh.

"Tell me where you are. I will take Claire someplace safe until this is over and she can come home."

"I can't do that."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because it's what Claire wants." Peter answered, meeting Claire's questioning eyes.

"She doesn't know what she wants! She has no idea what the next few weeks will bring, no stability, separated from her family. She is not ready for that!"

"I think she is. She says she knows what needs to be done, and she refuses to listen to anything otherwise." Claire moved closer on the bed, as Peter shifted the phone so she could listen in to the conversation.

"She thinks that she can save the world with her abilities. She has no idea what stopping this will entail."

"I think she does." Peter said.

Noah cursed on the other line, and rubbed his eyes in frustration. Knowing he was fighting a losing battle he finally sighed.

"If I'm to leave Claire in your care Peter, you better do whatever it takes to protect my daughter do you understand me?"

"I do."

"Good. I want to be contacted every three days and kept informed of what you're planning."

"I will."

"Let me talk to Claire."

Peter passed the phone back to Claire, who took it and returned to her bed.

"Dad?" She asked.

"You're sure you want to stay with Peter? You're both fugitives now. You'll have to stay in hiding."

"I know."

"Be careful Claire bear. Stay safe."

"I will dad. I love you."

"I love you too. I'll talk to you in a few days."

Claire hung up the phone silently, and then looked to Peter who had wandered to the room's desk and was browsing through the pamphlets there.

"Look at this." He said, turning to hand one of the brochures to Claire.

"The botanical gardens?" She asked skeptically.

"We can all meet there. It wouldn't look strange for a group of people to be touring the gardens together."

"It should work." Claire agreed, turning the brochure in her hand to browse it.


At eleven o'clock the next morning nine of the fugitives met together inside the peacefulness of the botanical gardens. They slowly walked through the different paths, pretending to admire the colorful array of plants, as they murmured plans to each other.

"I think we should stay here for awhile." Peter said quietly walking in between Claire and Mohinder. Matt trailed just behind, listening to Peter's thoughts telepathically as he passed on the information to Daphne.

"It is a large city. We will be less noticeable." Mohinder agreed.

"We're close enough to New York and D.C. We can be there within a day." Claire added.

"We'll have to find more permanent places to stay." Matt said from behind them. "Four adults in the same hotel room will look strange very quickly."

'Or kinky.' Claire thought, then blushed when Peter's wide eyes turned to her. Thankfully Matt was too busy talking to Daphne to pick up the stray thought, as Peter cleared his throat before speaking.

"Claire and I gathered up enough money to hold us all for awhile."

"Micah was able to take money from ATM's around the country, they won't be able to track us through that." Mohinder said, causing Peter to glance back at the boy in awe.

"I didn't think to try that. Very good."

"So we look for apartments here?" Daphne asked.

"Yea." Peter answered glancing back at her. "We'll stay in these groups for now and see what we can find."

"Couldn't we just erase the files?" Ando asked suddenly. "You and Micah can talk to computers. Why not tell them to erase the files?"

"Because with an operation like this they'd keep a hard copy of everything." Tracy put in. "And they know of Micah's ability, so they'd be prepared for him to try to erase everything."

They talked for a few minutes longer, before everyone drifted back to their cars prepared to start the search for more permanent hiding places.


Author's Note: Thank you for all of the reviews! Apparently Claire and Peter getting busy brings out all the reviews. And as a thank you, I decided to post this chapter as soon as I could, so thank you again. Keep the reviews coming and hopefully I'll be back soon with a new chapter.