Chapter Three

Can I Fly?

The next day, Nathan held himself to the promise and found himself standing outside of the home where his brother worked at ten the next morning. The door was unlocked at usual when Peter was there, so Nathan let himself in and made his way to the room where he knew Peter would be. His brother was asleep in the chair next to the bed, the way he was sure Claire had found him the day before.

"Pete? Pete," Nathan said reaching out and gently shaking his brother's shoulder.

Peter jumped when he felt Nathan's hand on his shoulder, surprised to have someone else in the room, "Nathan?"

"Sorry Pete, I didn't mean to scare you," Nathan said sincerely as he pulled a chair over to sit next to his extremely tired looking brother.

"No, you didn't scare me, I just didn't expect to see you here," Peter said rubbing his blood shot eyes, "What are you doing here?"

Nathan sighed, "I came to talk to you, Claire is really worried about you and to tell you the truth so am I, you look awful Pete. When was the last time you had a full nights sleep?"

Peter shrugged, "I don't know, its been a few weeks I guess, I just keep having these amazing dreams every time I close my eyes."

"Amazing dreams?" Nathan asked sounding surprised, "If they're amazing, why are you losing so much sleep?"

"I'm losing sleep because I can never finish them, I've told you about them before Nathan you weren't interested in them then," Peter said as he stood up to continue his work.

"So they are the same ones?" Nathan asked with a sigh.

"Yeah, and each time they get just a little more clear, I mean sometimes I'm flying, sometimes I'm falling, sometimes you're in them," Peter said finally going into detail about his dreams, "I mean when I woke up this morning, my foot hovered over the floor, hovered for a split second, I'm telling you Nathan, I think I can fly."

Nathan rolled his eyes, "Okay, I'm so glad you didn't tell Claire this, Pete, you're my brother and I love you but do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?"

"You knowwhy I'm telling you Nathan, because I think you'll the only one who will understand what's happening to me," Peter said glad that his patient was in a coma and not able to hear this all over wierd converstation between him and his brother.

"Whoa, why do you think I would understand, that you think you can fly?" Nathan asked still in his chair.

"Because you're my brother, and you've known me forever," Peter said, "Don't get me wrong, I love Claire, but I wouldn't tell her something like this unless I knew for sure."

Nathan's eyes widened, "You better not talk like this in front of my daughter, she adores you Pete, don't give her a reason to think you're crazy."

Peter rolled his eyes, "I thought you wanted to help me understand these dreams."

"Okay, so you think you can fly, why don't you go jump off a bridge and try it out," Nathan said throwing his arms in the air.

"I think I might want to start with something a little lower first," Peter said as he continued to do his job.

"I was joking Pete," Nathan said sounding like he thought his brother was insane.

"Nathan-," Peter began just as Nathan's phone rang, Nathan put his hand out to him to tell him to wait.

"Petrelli," Nathan said as he answered his cell, "Mom-I don't have time for-you what?"

"What?" Peter asked as he came over to stand next to her brother.

Nathan held out his finger again, "I'll be there in ten minutes."

"What she do now?" Peter asked as Nathan hung up the phone.

"She got arrested," Nathan said putting his phone in his pocket.

Peter's eyes widened, "For what?"

"Shop lifting," Nathan said if Peter didn't know any better he would have said he could have seen steam coming out of his brother's ears.

Peter's bit his lip looking around the room, "I can't leave Nathan, my shift is-."

"Don't worry about it Pete, I'll go take care of it, then I gotta make sure this stays buried," Nathan said more worried about his congress race then his own mother.

Peter just rolled his eyes, "Can you at least try to act like you care when you go bail her out?"

Nathan ignored him and pointed at him, "We're not done talking about this Pete, come by my headquarters when you're off work and we'll keep talking okay?"

Peter sighed but slowly nodded, "I'll see you at four Nathan."

It was around two in the after noon when Claire got the news that she would be allowed to take a make up math test at the end of the week. It would have made her really happy, well it did but she just couldn't get the worry about her uncle out of her head so it really made the good news old news. At the end of the day Claire appeared at cheer leading practice just to tell them that she could retake the test and that she couldn't stay for practice. After that she hit her locker grabbed her math book and then made a bline for the door.

Claire's feet wouldn't carry her fast enough, she was going to her father's campaigning headquarters to see if he had talked to Peter. She knew that if her Uncle wouldn't talk to her, he would almost always talk to her father. As she reached out to open the door she froze when she saw that her Uncle was already inside. "Well, looks like uncle Peter came to dad." Claire said to herself with a small smile, and then quietly opened the door.

Claire ducked inside and stood just far enough away so that her father and uncle couldn't see her but yet she couldsee them and more importantly, hear them. Her smile faded when she heard what they were saying.

"Did you not hear a thing I said earlier today?" Peter asked as Claire watched him follow her father to the other side of the room farther away from her, earlier today, her dad must have gone to Peter this morning after all.

"What that your dreams are telling you you can fly?" Nathan asked making little flying motions in the air with his arms, "Yeah I did and I'm going to pretend that for both our sakes you didn't say that."

"What if I'm right, hu, what if I can fly?" Peter said, "Maybe I'm suppose to do something."

"Like what Pete? You want something to do, take my offer," Nathan said looking at Peter like he wasn't even looking at his brother anymore.

"I already have a job," Peter said as he slipped his book bag strap over his shoulder.

Claire's eyebrows came together in confusion, why would her father be offering her uncle a job? Her dad knew that Peter loved what he did.

"Oh yeah, watching old people die there's a career," Nathan said, "I'm offering you a chance here Pete."

"I don't need your pity," Peter said as he turned to see Claire standing in the corner, confusion still written on her face.

"Peter," Nathan said trying to stop him.

"Just stop Nathan," Peter said then turned to Claire, "I'll talk to you later Claire."

"Sure Uncle Peter, call me," Claire said with a smile.

Peter nodded , took one more glance at Nathan and walked out the door.

Once the door closed behind him, Claire spun around to look at her father, "What did you tell him?"

"I offered him a job Claire, so I could keep an eye on him," Nathan said as walked to a chair and sat down.

"Dad, you know how much Uncle Peter loves what he does, why would you even go there?" Claire asked, "and why did he say he didn't need your pity?"

"You caught that hu?" Nathan asked and Claire nodded, Nathan sighed shook his head, "Claire, your Uncle is having these weird dreams and he thinks they're real."

"So what dad? He came to you for help didn't he? Did you even listen to him?" Claire asked her dark brown/green eyes were starting to fill with tears.

"Claire," Nathan said slowly, "Lets not talk about this right now."

"But-," Claire began but her father's hand stopped her.

"Claire, please just go home sweetheart, we'll talk about it later I promise," Nathan said standing up and giving her a quick hug before going back to work.

Claire stood there for a minute, shook her head as she watched her father go back to work like nothing ever happened. Claire sighed as she wiped away the small worried tears from her face, and then did as her father said and walked out the door heading home.