Chapter Five

Uncle and niece time

"Claire!" Claire's eyes popped open just as something heavy landed on her stomach.

"Ugh, Monty get off!" Claire grunted, as she tried to sit up but the weight of her brother kept her down.

"Monty get off your sister," Nathan said as he stuck his head through his daughter's open door, "Claire, up."

"I was getting up, until Mr. Energy here decided to use me as a trampoline," Claire said pointing at her youngest brother with a little annoyance on her face.

"Monty, off your sister, now," Nathan said looking to his youngest once again as he come into the room.

"Yes daddy, sorry Claire," Monty said slowly as he stood up, his lower lip beginning to shake, he thought he was in trouble.

"Oh Monty, don't do that, its okay just don't jump so hard next time," Claire said, she hadn't meant to make her brother upset.

"You're not mad?" Monty asked looking up at Claire, with his hazel brown eyes getting misty.

"No Mont, I'm not mad," Claire said with a smile and then added, "But would you guys mind getting out of here so I can get dressed?"

Nathan held up his hand at his daughter, "Say no more sweetie," he reached down and scooped up Monty in one swoop, "Come on Monty, lets let your sister get dressed, we'll go bug your brother."

"Yeah," Monty said, a pesky glare entering his eyes.

It almost made Claire laugh, her brother could be so cute at times and yet so annoying at others.

After breakfast, Claire spent most of her morning outside thinking, she liked it out there in the back yard. It was quiet, well as quiet as it got in New York. Her brothers were inside playing with her father and she got some alone time to think. She was waiting for her Uncle, Peter was suposed to be there at noon so instead of going to look for him, she was just going to wait until he came to her. She held up her right hand and looked at it again, where the cut had been, where she had cut herself with the razor, it was all still so unreal to her, it was almost like it was all just a weird dream.

"Penny for your thoughts," Claire jumped and looked up from the ground from the swing she was sitting in, her uncle stood in front of her, his almost famous crooked smile on his face.

Claire smiled back, "Hey Uncle Peter, is it noon already?"

"Its eleven thirty, I came by a little early, I had nothing else to do," Peter said with a shrug and pointed at the empty swing beside her, "Can I join you?"

Claire looked over at the empty swing and quickly nodded, "Sure."

Peter sat down and then looked over at his niece once again, "Claire-are you alright?"

Claire sighed not sure how to go about it, then decided it was best to go with the truth, "I was in the hallway when you were talking to dad the other day, I heard everything you guys said."

Peter bit his lower lip, "What all did you hear?"

Claire bit her lip, obviously a nervous habit she had gotten from her Uncle, "I heard, dad say that you think you can fly."

Peter sighed and looked at the ground, Claire winced maybe it had been a bad idea to tell him that she knew. But then Peter looked up, "It was just one of my dreams Claire, I'm sure its nothing, Nathan is going to try to help me piece it all together today, thats why I'm here."

"Maybe you can fly," Claire said suddenly, she couldn't take it anymore, she had to talk to somebody about what was happening to her. Since something along the same lines was happening to her Uncle, he seemed to be the person to talk to but the look he gave her when she said that, made her think that maybe she should have just kept her mouth shut. But then he finally decided to talk.

"Claire-after hearing that you don't think I'm nuts?" Peter asked looking happy and confused all at the same time.

Claire almost laughed, "No, I don't, okay I have to admit I did at first but then last night something happened to me and well lets just say it changed the way I think about-stuff like this."

Peter raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Somethings have been happening to me Uncle Peter, some strange things," Claire said looking up at her uncle, not sure how to put it, could she really just blurt out that she could heal?

"That doesn't answer my question Claire," Peter said, he was looking more confused then ever.

"I can heal Uncle Peter, I can heal!" Claire said and then winced so much for not blurting it out.

Peter's mouth dropped open, "I'm sorry, you want to run that by me again."

Claire sighed, "I won't tell you, I'll show you."

Peter shook his head, "What-." he froze when Claire pulled out the pocket knife that Peter had given her for her birthday, "Whoa, Claire what are you doing?"

Claire popped open the knife and held out her hand, "Trust me." She pulled the blade across her hand wincing. Peter winced when he saw the blood seep out from under the knife as he watched his niece dig the knife into her skin. Peter bit his lip fighting the urge to go into his medical mode.

Claire pulled away the knife and waited. One minute, two, three.

"Claire, that's really deep, please," Peter bagged picking up Claire's hand.

Claire shook her head, "Wait for it Uncle Peter, wait for it."

Four minutes, five, Peter's eyes widened as his niece's skin slowly began to pull itself together. It was a matter of seconds and the cut was healed, completely the same as before Claire had cut into it. Peter raised his head to look into Claire's eyes.

"When did this start?" Peter asked sitting up so he was across from her again.

"Well-yesterday I guess, that was when dad took off the bandage, that was when I first noticed it," Claire said she laughed when she saw Peter's eyes grow to big brown orbs.

"What bandage?" Peter asked, he hadn't heard about what happened three days earlier.

"Oh, you don't know, Monty ran into me a couple days ago and I fell into the glass cabinet in the hallway. Cut up my hand pretty good," Claire said with a small smile.

Peter nodded, "Oh, Monty wasn't watching where he was going again?"

Claire laughed, "Yep, thats Monty."

"So how long did you leave the bandage on?" Peter asked, trying to figure out when his niece's healing had started.

"About twenty four hours, but dad looked at it through the bandage a few hours after it happened and it didn't hurt at all when he poked at it, so I'm thinking maybe it healed after the bandage was put on within a matter of minutes," Claire explained, she smiled as she watched her uncle's eyes get the confused look again.

"So-if you can heal-maybe my dream is more then a dream," Peter said thinking out loud, "Did you tell your dad about this?"

Claire's eyes widened, "No, and I don't think I should, you saw the way he reacted when you told him about your dream."

"Well you can at least show him, mine is just a dream," Peter said and then realized what he had just said and stood up from the swing, "You know what, I'm going to prove it. I'm going to go right now and prove to Nathan that I can fly."