BLIND

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me...blah, blah blah...

Chapter 4 : Bonding

Peter's P.O.V

Peter had watched Claire's cab drive away, staying out of sight while he followed them. He knew that it meant a great deal to Claire for her to do this on her own to show that she's capable of taking care of herself, but as hard as he tried, Peter couldn't stay away. He'd decided to keep his distance and watch her with Ted. She'd never know that he was there and she'd feel content doing this alone, while he watched over her ready to intercede if need be. If Ted tried something, he'd rush in in an instant. It was a win-win.

He watched as a man approached her from behind and jerked her around. His jaw clenched as did his fist. Ted and Claire soon started to argue. Eventually, he noticed tears falling down her cheeks. It took alot, but he was able to talk himself down, keeping himself from coming out and punching the guy to the ground. They had seemed to settle down a bit, until Claire's expression froze in terror. A figure had emerged and he heard Claire faintly whisper "Sylar".

All bets were off.

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Ted: "Who the hell are you?"

Claire gasped."Sylar".

Sylar:"You remember. I'm touched"

Claire frowned, straigtening her posture, not willing to let him see the fear in her eyes. "Yeah, well, I make it a habit to remember the face of people that try to kill me."

Sylar looked amused. "Look little girl, it's nothing personal, really. I just need something from you and the only way to get it is by killing you. You're just collateral damage."

Ted was getting annoyed. He still didn't know who this guy was but from what was being said, he got that this man was here to hurt them. Ted raised a hand in front of him and it illuminated. He quickly flung the mass of energy at Sylar hoping to knock him out but Sylar quickly put up a hand and telekinetically stopped it before it reached him, instead sending it back towards Ted with more speed. Ted's eyes widened as he stood still not believing his eyes, waiting for the impact. But he never felt it. He felt a force pushing him out of the way and watched as the blast met with a nearby car, bursting it into flames.

With a wave of the hand, the person who pushed Ted away was able to put out the fire.

Claire, Ted and Sylar turned their attention to the intruder and watched as he regained his balance.

Sylar:"Peter Petrelli. Didn't I kill you once already?"

Peter raised his head as he spoke. "Didn't take".

Sylar chuckled. "Well, you know what they say-- third time's the charm" he said remembering their fall at homecoming and his previous attempt at Suresh's appartment.

Claire didn't know whether to feel relief that Peter had showed up; anger because he lied to her or concern because he was exposing himself to Ted and thereby absorbing his ability.

Peter opened his mouth to reply to Sylar's remark but felt a strange sensation overcome him as he laid out his arms and watched as they glowed and emitted rays of energy.

Peter:"Claire?" he said as he looked up at her, uncertainty in his eyes.

She rushed to his side

'Oh no' she thought. 'he's absorbing Ted's ability'

Claire:"Oh Peter" she sighed.

She stroked his back soothingly.

Sylar:"How touching. The hero and the cheerleader. It's too bad i'm going to have to put an end to all this when I kill you" he said noticing their closeness. He summoned a car with his hands, lift it up and forced it forward onto Peter, crushing him. He was trapped underneath it.

"Peter!" Claire yelled in horror. She ran to where the car landed and tried with all her strength to roll it over to release Peter but she couldn't. She tried harder, grunting.

Meanwhile, since Sylar was preoccupied with Peter and Claire, Ted took the opportunity to run away without being seen. He got as far as the beginning of the alley until he was stopped somehow, his feet paralysed to the ground. He soon felt blood dripping along his face and screamed in agony as Sylar drilled his skull open. He fell to the floor, his lifeless body sprawled on the streets of New York city.

Claire took a quick glance behind her and saw what happened to Ted. Sudenly, she felt renewed determination, fueled by fear of what was going to happen next and grunted once more while she pushed the car, summoning all her strength this time succeeding to roll it on its back, revealing a bloody Peter.

His eyes were open and his expression obviously pained. "Peter, are you okay?"

His wounds started to close and his limbs placed themselves back into place. "I'm fine" he replied. Claire helped him up and gasped as she saw Sylar approaching them. She turned to look at Peter who was still slowly recovering. He thought of what to do. He wanted to defeat Sylar once and for all but he had to get Claire to safety first. God forbid something happened to him, she would be left defenseless with Sylar ready and willing to take her life. He bent down and lift Claire up in his arms, one hand supporting her legs, the other on her back, flying them both away to safety. Claire clasped her hands tightly around his neck letting out a relieved sigh and rested her head on his shoulder. 'Thank god you're okay' she thought.

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Peter landed them on the roof of his apartment building, gently releasing Claire from his grasp.

Claire:"That was amazing" she referred to the flying.

Peter smirked in agreement. "Yeah, I don't think i'm ever going to get used to it". Everything looked different when from that angle. It was all truly beautiful.

Claire noticed a trail of blood on his chin that made it look like there was a cut. She turned his chin with her hand and smoothed it over to see if the cut was open.

He raised his hand to where hers was, feeling his chin.

Peter:"It's nothing. It's healed."

She removed her hand and her expression quickly changed.

She pinched him hard on his left arm and put on the angriest look she could muster. If it hadn't hurt so much, he'd be amused. He was about to ask what that was for but realisation hit him.

He sighed.

Peter:"Claire... I had to" he said holding her gaze.

Claire:"You could have trusted me to handle it"

Peter:"It wasn't about trust Claire"

Claire:"Do you realise what you've done?" she said raising her voice.

Peter:"Look, it doesn't matter now, What's done is done" he started walking away.

Claire:"How can you be so nonchalant about this?" she said in disbelief, stepping in front of him.

He looked away.

Claire:"You absorbed his power, Peter!"

Peter:"I realise that" he started to get frustrated.

Claire:"Then how could you do something so stupid?!"

Peter faced her now, not able to keep his cool. "What was I supposed to do? Watched and stayed away while Sylar killed you?"

Claire:"Maybe you should have!" She looked down when he looked at her crookedly, shocked at the words that had come out of her mouth. That would never be an option for him.

Her voice softened when she spoke again. "If it weren't for me, you never would have had to come to my rescue and you never would have met Ted".

Peter:"Hey, I don't want you talking like that, all right?" he said as he lift up her chin to face him, not letting her look away. "Maybe I was always meant to meet him for some reason. We may not understand why yet but we will, in time. It's not your fault."

Claire answered, almost in a whisper. "Yes, it is". She cleared her throat. She looked back up at him, thinking about everything that happened the past few months; Zach, the haitian, her family. "I ruin the lives of everyone around me, everyone I care about is either on the run and in serious danger or affected in some way, and not for the better. I'm poison, and now I've taken you down too."

He hadn't realised she harbored so much guilt, wrongfully so.

"Claire" he began as he put one head on each of her shoulders, willing her to hear him. "You give yourself too much credit, you know that? You're not responsible for Sylar's actions, you didn't make him kill all those people, including your friend back at Union Wells. It's not your fault that the company is looking for your dad to fulfil their own agenda and you didn't make me do anything. We all make choices, Claire. We're all accountable for our own actions."

She shook her head, not accepting what he was saying.

Claire:" If I were you, I'd hate me. I've been so much trouble for you Peter, you probably wish you'd never met me."

Peter:"Don't you realise that if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be alive? That day at your high school when I went fell from the roof-- I never would have survived if it weren't for you. I regenerated because of you Claire."

Claire scoffed dryly. "Yeah, well you never would have been there in the first place if you weren't trying to protect me."

Peter was perplexed with the girl in front of him. Her sad eyes pulled at his heart strings and her tears stung him. How could she not see what she's done for him?

Peter:"What about the other day? When you pulled that shard of glass from my skull? I'm alive because of you Claire. You've saved my life twice already. I'm beginning to see that it was our destiny to meet."

The sincerity in his voice settled her down a bit, reassuringly. Her eyes brightened. 'Destiny?' she thought to herself. "Really?" She asked, needing him to tell her that he didn't blame her or hate her for anything that's happened, though she still felt partially responsible.

He smiled sincerely. "Really" he simply replied and even with that single response, she knew that he meant it. She reciprocated with a half-smile of her own.

Peter:"And Claire?" She looked at him quizzically.

Peter:"Please don't ever feel like you're a burden to me because you're not. I'm glad for the company, It gets lonely sometimes in that empty appartment."

This time, she didn't mind or feel violated that he had read her thoughts. He kissed her forehead then put an arm around her sideways and walked with her to the stairs, heading inside the building and into his appartment.

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Later on that day...

Claire:"Hey Peter?"

Peter:"Yeah?"

Claire:"What are you going to do now that you-- you know" she didn't want to say the words, dind't want to think about him exploding.

Peter put down the book that he was reading, the one by Chandra Suresh about spontaneous regeneration.

Peter:" I need to find a way to learn to control my abilities"

Claire:"Any idea on how to start?"

Peter nodded. " I met this man Claude a few days ago and I trained with him. I was able to control some of my abilities by concentrating on the people I got them from but I still need to keep at it. I'm hoping if I can perfect it somehow, I don't explode."

Claire:"I can help you train".

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Over the next week, Claire helped Peter train strenuously. During the course of their training, they'd noticed two things; one that Claire had some sort of calming effect on Peter; whenever he was overwhelmed by his powers and he started to glow as if he were about to explode at any second, she was always able to talk him down and soothe him. Second, Peter seemed to heal faster with her around, something that was clearly demonstrated when Claire had gone to get some take-out while he was training one day. When she'd returned he was on the floor struggling to regenerate after he'd thought of Ted and felt the nuclear energy flow from him and killing his cells at a rapid rate, burning his skin tissue, even revealing some bones. He'd then concentrated on Claire, trying to regenerate but the process was slowed by the nuclear activity. But when Claire came in and rushed to his side, she was like a catalyst to his recovery. Within a minute, he was back to his healthy self. How or why they didn't understand but it proved to be the case every time.

They'd gotten alot more comfortable around one another and what had started as innocent insinuation one day soon transformed into shameless flirtation. Peter never took it further than that though, not allowing himself that leisure. He reprimanded himself for the thoughts the 17 year old stirred in him and reminded himself of their task at hand, brushing away the wonder of what her skin would feel like, the way her lips would taste on his. Slowly, she occupied his dreams and he would blush when he would see her every morning, remembering the things he dreamed they'd done the night before. It didn't help that she traipsed around the appartment with rolled up shorts and tank tops driving him even more crazy. He starts to fear that one day he might not be able to control himself, thinking that he may act on his feelings imagining he's having another fantasy only for it to turn out that he's doing things to her for real.

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It was night, they'd drained their energy training all day. They'd decided to relax and watch a movie and after much contemplation, they'd agreed on "School for Scoundrels". Peter , who was wearing flannel pyjama pants and a gray shirt, got the popcorn ready and slipped the movie inside the dvd player and called out to Claire who had just finished showering. After a couple of minutes, she came out of the room but instead of wearing Simone's pj's as she usually did, she wore Peter's boxers and his t-shirt, her hair wet.

He had quickly looked at her when she came in the room and looked away, but turned back to at her when he took in her appearance, slowly looking her up and down, perhaps letting his eyes linger a little too long. She sat next to him on the couch putting her fett up and noticed him still staring.

"I hope you don't mind, I borrowed some of your clothes".

When he finally found his voice again he replied "Don't worry about it, they look better on you anyway" he half-joked.

She inwardly smiled.

Claire:"It's just that--I've noticed that it bothers you to see me wearing her clothes...your ex's."

She observed his reaction.

He was silent for a while.

Peter:"Her name was Simone" he started. "I used to be a hospice nurse and her father was my patient. I'd see her alot when she'd come to visit him and I fell in love with her but. I was too much of a coward at first to tell her how i feel" he chuckled remembering. "Eventually, i built up the courage to tell her and amazingly we got together --but" he paused.

Peter:"she was shot in front of me. It was my fault, the bullet was meant for me"

Claire felt the hurt in his voice pull at her heart strings.

Claire:"Peter--" she started but stopped, unsure of what to say. What could she say really? Nothing she'd say would take away his pain.

She knelt closer to him and curled her arm with his, and rested her head on his shoulder. They remained that way for a while.

After a few minutes, Peter reached for the remote and pressed "Play". Soon they burst in laughter and the somber mood that had plagued them before disappeared.

By the time the movie was over, Claire had found herself lying on the couch, her head in Peter's lap as he stroked her hair. Each touch sending lightning sensations through her body, especially when his hands grazed her neck.

Claire:"Hey Peter?"

Peter:"hmm?" he replied, still occupied by her hair.

Claire:"Can we get drunk?"

Peter laughed, not expecting her to say that.

Claire:"No, I mean, would our bodies allow us to, considering we heal?"

He thought about it for a second.

Peter:"I don't know" he said in a 'now-that-you-mention-it kind of way.

She got up from his lap and faced him eagerly.

Claire:"Let's try it" she grinned.

He thought about it.

For a second, she thought he would object considering her age and give her a speech about underage drinking.

That is until...

'Meh couldn't hurt' he thought. 'What could possibly happen?'

Peter:"Vodka or Tequila?"

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AN: HI GUYS! Hoped you liked it, tell me what you thought of this chapter :D