Disclaimer: Owning of the Heroes I have not. I've been watching waaaaay too much Baljeet.

Chapter IX: Family Feud

"You can't hide in there forever." Peter called through the door to where Claire was staying. Once he found out the door was locked and that Claire was trying her best to keep quiet (which really meant she was hyperventilating and he could easily hear her) he knew something was up.

"Come on, Claire, I know you're awake." There was a pause before she finally acknowledged she wasn't going to be able to fool the empath,

"Fine." One deep sigh later, the door creaked open.

"What's wrong?" he asked, plopping down on the bed.

"I did something terrible…" she confessed, looking away from his concerned stare due to her leaking courage.

"What?" he questioned, putting his hands on her shoulders, "Just tell me, I promise you I won't be mad."

"I…I–" A crash through the window stopped her from finishing her sentence. They both fell to the ground. Peter, being the medical major he was, took the jacket he was wearing and encased Claire in it to keep her from getting decapitated from the wide shards of glass, knowing that there was no regen who could come back from that.

Himself? He didn't worry too much about that factor. He never did.

Through the shattered remains of the window, he could see the object that had caused the barbarous incident. Nathan.

"Are you kidding me?" Peter shouted getting up from the glass-littered ground, "You could have killed us!" he added meekly, "Well, one of us…"

"You've been avoiding my calls, Pete. And my–"

"Oh, yeah, you're girlfriend, right? The one who tried to seduce me in the shower?"

"She tried to wha–" he stopped himself and steered the conversation back on track, "That doesn't matter. We have to end this before it–" He was interrupted when Peter punched him in the face. But Nathan didn't strike back, like Peter was counting on, he just stood there, so full of poise and proper etiquette. It made Peter want to punch his perfect brother all over again.

"Peter, let's not start this."

"Start this? Start this? It's already started, Nathan. You started it." Before he was about to land another blow, the senator's words cut through the haze,

"You don't want to fight me."

"Why? What are you going to do, fly on me?"

"And what are you going to do, absorb me? At least I have my own power, you just go around taking everyone else's. You're faceless, Peter, a chameleon."

"More like a sponge." he replied darkly as he punched him again, this time his fists on fire.

"Ted." Nathan retaliated with words, "That's Ted Sprague's power, not yours."

"Get out of here," he yelled, "Now. Before you take too many curies of radiation."

Nathan was a little confused at first, but then he got it. Peter was going to get him to leave, the question left up to Nathan was did he want to leave dead or alive. He flew out the window hesitantly.

Peter smiled and Claire looked relieved. But not too relieved…

H~*~R~*~G~*~I~*~S~*~B~*~A~*~D~*~A~*~S~*~S

There was a soft rap on the door Claire had once again locked. It continued for a time, the delicate knocks trying too hard to be gentle melodiously blending into her subconscious. Then there was a shuffle, the sound of fabric moving, cardboard being slid under the door, and light footsteps trudging away in disappointment.

Once she was sure he was gone, she picked up the package. It was a tube that held a scrap of paper inside. She shook it and it fell over into her hands, uncurling slightly. She picked it up and looked at the onyx ink-stained parchment and read aloud,

"I know you may have mixed feelings about what happened last night. I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable, or trying to do any of the things I suggested in the past, I just want redemption. I'll let you choose what that means. Signed – Gabriel Gray."

A tear rolled down her cheek as the days they had shared together the past week played in her mind. He had that shy, kindergarten-looking innocence illuminating his features, that careful and courteous tone of voice that was reserved for her and only her. But then the memories of him taking apart her head, cutting her open, suggesting that they be together solely because they were both adopted and couldn't die resurfaced. She was terrified that if she accepted him, he would turn back into the Sylar she once knew, not the Gabriel she had gotten so close to. And that was the only reason she kept the door locked, never opened her mind, didn't stand too close to him, never spoke to him like he was an actual human being, always gave him a death-defying stare when he told her for the millionth time how sorry he was. And while she kept her distance, tried not to get too friendly, or attached, her mind may have stayed closed, but her heart was wide open. And now there was something there that shouldn't be.

H~*~R~*~G~*~I~*~S~*~B~*~A~*~D~*~A~*~S~*~S

Claire hung in the door way, smiling.

"What?" Peter asked, looking suspiciously at the regen as she dropped onto the couch he was also occupying. He was sitting "properly" on the couch, while she was lying down on it, her legs inevitably crossing his.

"Whaddya mean?" she questioned, her tone calling to him from cloud nine.

"You seem a little too happy…" he grabbed a flashlight from the coffee table and shined it in her eyes, "Are they giving you drugs at that new school?"

"No…" she giggled, pushing the flashlight away from her, "It's just – I don't know, you ever wondered, back when we didn't know about all of this, that you were going to die without a story? Ever wondered if there was something more than birth, pre-school, elementary, middle, high, college, work, retirement, death?" The question took Peter by surprise. Her voice was too airy and carefree to have asked him such a question. But once he recuperated from the shock, he answered,

"Well, I always believed, no matter what I did, I would die son number two. I mean, my brother was the lawyer, politician, golden boy of the family. I was the dreamer, the one that the Petrelli gene was wasted on, the hunter that couldn't kill – no, that wouldn't kill. My father hated me, disproved of everything I did and looked down on all of my decisions. In the Petrelli line, the perfect balance was to raise the perfect son, then give all of your wealth and coddling to a younger girl. But he was disappointed when he got me oppose to "Daddy's little girl." He got a half-hearted son that didn't cut it. A disgrace to the name Petrelli instead." By the look of Claire's face, he realized his mistake.

"I'm sorry. You probably just wanted me to say yes." He scratched the back of his neck.

"No, it's okay. I can work with that," she laughed, "It's just – look at us now! I can't die and I have a story, and you are winning in the polls against Senator Sky-Boy."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I checked this morning. The people seem to think Nathan is just a wet blanket on a new hope rising. I'd say that slandering speech backfired." she crossed her arms and smirked. Somehow, Peter couldn't bring himself to smile as triumphantly, which caused her own grin to falter.

"What's wrong?"

"About what happened yesterday, with the radiation coming out of me," he scratched the back of his neck again and shifted in his seat uneasily, "I'm scared the next time I get mad, we might have another Kirby Plaza on our hands."

"Don't be silly, Peter, you have it under control, I can tell. If it had been when you first absorbed his power, you would've already burned his face when you punched it. But you didn't. I'm proud, that's more slack than I would've cut him." Peter looked out at the window that boxed in the city. There weren't many stars in the night sky (mostly due to the fact the lights of New York out shined them) so there wasn't much of a distraction from the conversation he wanted to slip out of.

"Ahh," he sighed, "Tomorrow I go back to work, so I might have to go to bed a bit earlier." he told Claire as he slipped out from underneath her legs and over to the make-shift bed on the floor he always slept in.

"Goodnight," she called, slipping into her own quarters.

"Goodnight," he replied nestling into the bed.

H~*~R~*~G~*~I~*~S~*~B~*~A~*~D~*~A~*~S~*~S

It was hailing like no tomorrow outside of the water-streaked, sun-soaked, snow-smeared, window that had gone through tough rain and shine alike for more than a decade. The window belonged to the old, rickety, paramedic van that Peter was given the privilege to drive all by himself since Hesam was sick that day.

147 Providence Drive crackled through the speakers of the paramedic van. Immediately he began to drive.

When he got there, he was surprised to see the giant, cow-sized piece of hail that had smashed the sidewalk. It was a very peculiar sight, like the world's largest rubber-band ball. Thanks to Mohinder, he was able to lift it out of the way. The sight he saw underneath it was more horrifying than anything else about the grotesque hail. Blood was everywhere. Gory pools of mashed remains were oozing out of it and when he saw the person that all of the injuries belonged to, he was even more horrified.

"Bennet…?" he breathed hoarsely, shuttering at the horrendously barbarous scene.

AN:

Not so tough when I send a fricking two ton chunk of hail falling from the sky to land specifically on you, are you? JK, you know I don't mean it, HRG. And, yes, there will be some logic as to why that happened that will be revealed at a later date. Anyone got the 147 Providence Dr. joke? (Dr. or Drive, does it matter if I abbreviate it wrong?) I'm actually guessing no one did, so I'm just going to tell you it's from another fic of mine. That Kingdom Hearts and Heroes crossover I did a month ago? That's the one. And when Nathan and Mohinder were talking, Nathan called Peter a chameleon, to which Mohinder replied, "More like a sponge." So, I thought I'd slip that in there.

Now, there are two ways this could play out. You can review, and I can save HRG. Or you can not review and I can make sure Claire is unavailable when he needs her blood. The choice is yours. And don't think I'm bluffing, I once killed Lucy because I didn't get enough. Don't doubt my symbiotic relationship with reviews, it runs deep.