Come What May – Chapter 13
By obi's girl

When Claire came to, the first thing that she noticed was that she was not in the Petrelli mansion anymore, but in a cell. There was a cot, a bedpan – and the lights – the bright lights filtering into the cell were so disorienting. Claire felt the area on her neck where she had been injected; the scar had already healed but she still felt drowsy.

The bright lights around her made it difficult to focus properly, but through the lights, she was able to make out someone else in the cell with her. Claire tried to focus her eyes, but the lights were giving her a headache, and the tranquilizer wasn't helping either.

Foolishly, she tried to stand up, but collapsed. The figure Claire saw earlier rushed to her side, catching her body before it hit the floor and then gently laid her back onto the cot.

Upon arriving back at the mansion, Mr. Bennet came down the stairs to greet Peter, Matt, Ando and Hiro as Nathan came from the study. The only one missing was Claire. Peter looked over at Nathan, as he noticed himself that Claire wasn't downstairs already. He offered to look for her upstairs while Peter checked the rooms downstairs. Mr. Bennet would have gone with Peter, but he still couldn't move without feeling a shooting pain running through his chest from his gunshot wound.

Nathan came back from the upstairs as Peter met up with him. "She's not upstairs," he said. "I think Isaac stopped by here earlier. I heard him talking with Claire in the kitchen – I think she left with him to the studio."

Isaac. Peter scowled, pulling out his cell phone. He dialed Isaac's number. Thankfully, the painter picked up. "Isaac, its Peter. Is Claire there with you?" he demanded.

"No," he said shortly. "I haven't seen her since the hospital yesterday."

Nathan eyes shot up, and he looked at Mr. Bennet accusingly; Mr. Bennet knew what he was thinking, but he had to have known that he wasn't responsible for Claire going missing. Peter hung up his cell, as Heidi, his mom and nephews came through the door. Monty and Simon hugged Peter and then their dad.

"Hey guys, did you have a fun day with mom and grandma?" he asked, still eyeing Mr. Bennet.

"We went to Central Park," Simon said, looking around the grownups for Claire. "Claire would have loved it. Where is she?"

Nathan scowled, messing up Simon's hair. "Come on, go on upstairs and get cleaned up," he said, looking over at Heidi. Heidi sighed, ushering her sons upstairs while Angela stayed back.

"What happened?" she demanded. "Where's Claire?"

The next time Claire awoke, the lights had dimmed and she could focus her eyes more clearly. The figure that she saw earlier was a man…scruffy-looking, brown hair and blue eyes. Claire hadn't seen him before, but his presence felt familiar to her.

"Hello again, Claire," he said, his accent distinctly British.

"Claude?" she questioned, looking him over. "I thought you were supposed to be invisible. How can I see you?"

He sighed. "I'm invisible, for the most part, when I don't want anyone to see me, but I thought that you would feel better if you knew that you weren't alone," he said, "Feel any better now, love?"

Claire felt her neck again. The tranquilizer had worn off, but now she had a clearer view of what type of cell they were in. It was a small cell with a large two-way glass mirror. "It's the company, isn't it?" she asked him.

"Actually, its only Thompson and the shape shifter," he said. "I haven't seen anyone else."

"Shape shifter?"

"I don't know her name, but she's been doing all the dirty work. And I think she was the one who shot your dad on the roof."

Claire looked over at Claude. "You were there when that happened? Was Peter with you then?" she questioned.

Claude backed away. "We were both there when it happened, yes," he said, holding up his hands. "Look Claire, I'm sorry about what happened to your dad, but you weren't supposed to be there. No one was supposed to know that we hadn't left the city, including you. But I thought it would be best if everyone thought that we had left so no one would go looking for us."

Claire sighed, standing up off the cot. "I understand, Claude," she soothed as he helped her. "Who's this shape shifter?"

"I don't know," he offered. "She's the one who got you, I take it?"

Claire thought back to Isaac's appearance at the mansion. She didn't notice it then, but the painter had been apprehensive, anxious to get her alone. He hadn't even let her get Nathan. If the company only wanted to study her and kill her dad, then she wandered, why Claude was there. Claire looked over at cellmate. "Why are you here?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Old vendetta, I think," he mused, "but if the company were after you and your dad, then they wouldn't need me."

"On the contrary, Claude," a voice interrupted them. "We have a lot of questions for you, but you're not the priority at the moment." The voice paused for a moment and for some reason, Claire could feel the speaker's eyes on her alone. "Welcome, Claire. We've been expecting you for a long time."

"Nathan, turn on the television," Heidi cried, coming down the stairs and going to the living room TV.

The heroes filed into the room, standing dumbfounded as to what Heidi was panicked about until the camera on TV panned to the Deveaux building and a female reporter interviewing someone. "Yesterday afternoon, residents of the Deveaux building and nearby residents reported hearing a gunshot. Witnesses from neighboring buildings did not see the shooter, but they have identified the possible victims as an adult male and female. I am here now with one of the witnesses…" The reporter turned to the witness, a boy in his late teens. "What did you see?"

"I didn't see the shooter, but I saw a man come down from the sky; he rescued the girl and the man, and then he flew away, carrying them both."

The reporter looked at her subject questioningly, as Nathan held his breath. "You saw a flying man? Did he wear blue tights and red cape?" she asked.

"No. He wore office clothes…I didn't get a good look at him; he came and went too quickly," he said.

The reporter nodded and turned back to the camera, listening to a feed from her microphone. "This just in folks. We have recordable video of the escape of this flying man,"

The heroes watched in horror as the video of Nathan's rescue played back. The video had not been doctored or edited, because Nathan remembered letting Mr. Bennet rest on his back, as Claire held onto his waist. The video was paused and then lens zoomed in on the figures, but the image was still blurry. Heidi turned off the television and glared at her husband.

"I rescued Claire and her father," he defended. "She called me for help. What was I supposed to do? Ignore her?"

"You could have waited for the ambulance to arrive," she said.

"But the by the time they would have reached her, Mr. Bennet would have died, and Claire would have been taken by the company," Nathan defended, even though the latter part had happened anyway.

Angela Petrelli was unusually quiet, observing this whole mess. She knew that it was only a matter of time until more witnesses came forward and identified Nathan as the flying man. "That's it not, though. There's more, isn't there?" she questioned.

Heidi sighed. "Apparently, that guy wasn't the only witness as you heard. There were more and some of them have even talked to the media that the flying man resembled one Nathan Petrelli, the congressman," she said, going over to the front window. Two media trucks were parked outside of the mansion gates. Nathan and Peter went over to the window, glancing outside. "Damnit Nathan, if more media trucks arrive…"

"This definitely does not help matters," Peter mused, backing away and glaring at his brother. "How are we supposed to get to Claire if our only exit is blocked by media outlets?"

Heidi's scowl turned into a frown, glaring once again at her husband. "I thought Claire was here. Where is she?" she demanded.

Nathan sighed. "I don't know. Isaac stopped by here earlier; I assumed that she went with him to the studio, but…"

"I called Isaac at his studio and he said that he hadn't seen Claire since the hospital yesterday," Peter finished, looking back at Mr. Bennet. "We need to get her back,"

"I could teleport to wherever she is," Hiro offered.

"That could work…if we knew where they were holding her, but we don't know," Mr. Bennet said, "Most likely, they haven't left the city. They would need to set up shop somewhere and make do with that. Thompson wouldn't want to wait to begin the experimentation process."

Matt stepped in. "Then where would he take her? A hospital or a clinic would have witnesses. They'd need to go to some place private, where someone won't accidentally stumble upon them," he reasoned.

"What's the closet area around here that would fit that description?" Peter wandered.

"Harbor docks," Nathan reasoned.

"We need to get there and save Claire," Peter resolved.

Heidi rolled her eyes, pointing once again to the media trucks outside of the gates. "Good luck getting there without being noticed," she said.

tbc