Chapter Four

It took days for them to reach the city limits, moving only at night and staying off main roads, which made the trip longer then necessary. But as the sun rose over Baltimore two days after the plane crash, Peter and Claire were grateful to see the rising buildings in the distance.

"Any idea where the mall is?" Peter asked wirily looking towards the city.

"What makes you think I know?" Claire asked exasperatedly coming to stand at his side.

"Well you're the girl. Shouldn't stuff like that be ingrained? Like internal GPS, mall, due north two miles." Peter answered.

"Haha, who knew I was on the run with a comedian." She shot back.

Peter grinned down at her, before moving forward into the city. After walking through the city blocks for a few minutes they stumbled across a bus station. Peter looked through the directory, an anxious Claire pacing silently next to him. When he had their general direction in hand, Peter put his hand to the small of Claire's back as they began to walk down the city streets once again.

"How far?" Claire asked

"There's a shopping center about seven blocks away. That should have everything we need." He answered turning down another street.

When they reached the shopping center, Peter stopped at its entrance, making note of the different stores around them. He pointed out the bank and motioned to Claire.

"What are you going to do?" She hissed, tugging at his arm as he strode toward the bank.

"What Micah does."

"Are you sure?" Claire asked in an undertone. "I mean is this really the best place and time to try out a new power?"

"I'll be okay. Don't worry." Peter answered running a finger down her cheek.

They came towards the bank at an angle, hoping to miss its security camera. Peter motioned for Claire to stand off to the side, out of the camera's view as he stepped up to the ATM.

Apologizing under his breath, Peter laid his hand on the ATM's screen. He smiled as the denominations of money came up. A few minutes later his pockets were heavier with thousands of dollars taken from multiple accounts, and the security camera's memory of the last hour erased, with directions not to tape for another hour.

"Ready?" Claire asked coming to stand beside him when she saw his grin.

"Yea, let's go." Peter answered, taking her hand to lead her towards their next stop, the electronic store.

Inside, Peter and Claire browsed through the aisles trying to look inconspicuous as they zeroed in on the prepaid phones. Claire moved towards the phones, picking up a simple black phone and a prepaid card for 500 minutes and brought it to the counter.

"Is that all?" The clerk asked as she rang up the items.

"Yes that's it." Claire answered with an easy smile. Pulling out some of the money Peter had given her she quickly paid the bill and left with a quiet goodbye.

Peter met her at the entrance of the store and they quickly slipped outside. Spotting a payphone Peter activated their new phone and minutes and then offered it to Claire, who shook her head, before slipping it into his own pocket.

"What's next?" Claire asked, glancing around the shopping center.

"Clothes." Peter murmured moving in the direction of the department store. "Just necessities, a change of clothes, toiletries, and bags to carry them in."

Claire nodded in agreement as she and Peter walked through the store together, picking up the necessary articles. The quickly browsed through the aisles, throwing a pair of jeans each, some T-shirts, sweat pants, a jacket for Claire, socks, toothbrushes, a hairbrush, soap, travel size bottles of shampoo, and disposable razors. So focused was she on remaining unnoticed that Claire didn't even blush as she and Peter added underwear to their growing pile. They quickly picked up a second backpack for Claire, before sorting through their basket.

"Do you think that's everything?" Peter asked once they were finished.

"I think so, we pretty much thought of everything." Claire answered, leading the way towards the registers.

They paid and left the store, once again stopping at the edge of the shopping center. Out of sight of the other patrons and any other spying eyes, they ripped the tags off their newly bought clothes and quickly filled the two backpacks with their purchases. That finished, they moved away from the center and returned to the city blocks. They wandered through the city until they stumbled across a used car lot near the outskirts. The two slowly moved through the aisles of cars, noting years, mileage, and type before stopping when the see an older salesman moving towards them.

"Welcome folks. I'm Michael" The man said in greeting, holding out his hand to shake Peter's. Peter accepted the hand and watched intently as the man greeted Claire at his side.

"Your first car?" He asked noting the young look of the two people in front of him.

"As a couple." Claire answered with a vapid smile. She leaned against Peter with a granting him a loving smile, and gently caressed a hand across his chest. Peter stiffened and glanced down at the blonde in question. She shot him a quick look that thankfully went unnoticed by their audience and snuggled closer. "We just got married and it's our first car together." She explained, causing Peter to grin in understanding.

"That is a beautiful thing." Michael said with a large grin, knowing an easy sale when he saw one.

"There's just so many to choose from." Claire continued with a giggle. "Actually we eloped and Brad had to sell his car to pay for our wedding, and it was such a great car." She added conspiratorially, leaning up to kiss Peter lightly on the lips, leaving little to the salesman's imagination of what the two people before him liked to do in that great car.

"It's what first got her attention." Peter added, wrapping his arm low around her hips. "A mustang." He continued. "God I miss it."

"So we were hoping to find something similar. You know, a really fast car." Claire said flirtatiously, leaning closer to the salesman whose eyes quickly dropped to her chest, then shot back up to look at Peter nervously who leveled narrowed eyes at him.

"I have just what you're looking for." Michael said quickly, shooting a smile at Claire. He led them down the aisles and stopped in front of a four year old, 20,000 mile coupe.

"She has speed, little mileage, and is practically new." He said gesturing to the car. "A really great find."

Peter let go of Claire's waist to move around the car. "It sounds like a good deal." He said conversationally, as his mind delved into the other man's. Satisfied with what he heard he nodded.

"What do you think babe?" He asked motioning Claire over.

"I don't know, it's a little small in the back." She answered with a giggle and a twirl of her hair around her index finger.

"Well we can work around that." Peter answered with a leer. Claire giggled again and turned back to Michael. "We'll take it, if you drop it another five hundred."

"Well miss I think we have a deal."


An hour later Peter and Claire were driving away in their newly purchased car. Thankfully, Michael wasn't very fond of computers and gratefully agreed when Brad offered to type in the information for him. Claire gushed over their purchase and while Michael's attention focused on the young woman, Peter laid his hand over the keyboard, setting their car up with a fake name and registration.

"How's this?" Peter asked, rising from his seat, groaning inwardly as he had to pretend not to notice the way Michael had been eyeing Claire.

"Everything is in order." Michael said after quickly checking over the screen. "Thank you very much for your help Brad, it saved us a ton of time. These computers, can never get used to them."

Peter simply nodded slowly, glancing over at Claire when she stifled a giggle.

Again looking over the screen Michael smiled and held out his hand. "Brad, Sara it has been great doing business with you. Now you two enjoy newlywed life." He continued with a wink.

Claire giggled again and winked at the older man. "Oh don't worry, we will." She said biting the corner of her lip before pulling Peter's arms so they rested low on her hips then pulled him close so that his chest met her back as she turned swaying her hips to lead them out of the building.

With their cash supplies severely depleted after their purchases of the day, Peter and Claire drove out of town to find a cheap motel. Claire waited in the car while Peter went inside and paid cash for a room for the night. When he returned to the car and drove them around to the other side of the building, they silently pulled out their backpacks and then walked to the room where Peter pulled out the key and quietly opened the door. He closed it firmly behind them, locking both locks before dropping his bag onto the bed closest to the door.

Claire moved further into the room, placing her bag on the second bed and turning to eye her surroundings. Peter smiled at her kindly.

"You were amazing today." He said with amusement. "That guy was eating out of your hand."

"I know." She said smugly, then frowned. "It's horrible how everyone thinks blondes are stupid, superficial, promiscuous creatures. But, since it worked in our favor in this case, and got us a great car, I won't complain too much." She finished brightly.

Peter grinned at that, then flopped down crossways on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He heard Claire gracefully lie down on her bed, then turn to her side to prop her head on her hand and face him.

"What's going to happen?" She asked, finally sounding like the scared teenager she actually was.

"I don't know." Peter asked truthfully, positioning himself on his bed to face her. "But he has to be stopped Claire."

"I still can't believe he did this to us, that he's the reason they're hunting us." She said sadly. "I can't believe it's turned into this." She finished, wiping at her eyes before the welling tears had a chance to escape.

"We'll get through this Claire. I promise." Peter vowed, reaching his hand across the space between their beds to hold hers.

Claire grasped his hand tightly, then released it to turn onto her back.

"We're meeting at one o'clock tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"We should get some sleep while we can then." She said, kicking off her shoes, and curling under the covers.

"Good night Claire." Peter said, moving under his own blankets and turning off the lights.

"Night Peter." Came the muffled reply.


Fifteen minutes before one o'clock found Claire and Peter aimlessly strolling through the Inner Harbor. Browsing through shops, one eye always on the look out for one of their friends. Moving towards the far side, they finally spotted Micah and Matt near the ticket booth for the aquarium.

"Good you're here!" Micah said, holding out his hand. Peter smiled crookedly, and quickly handed over the cell phone to the boy. Micah worked on it silently, ignoring the gazes of the others as he set up the phone to his specifications.

"We stumbled across each other yesterday near a thrift store." Matt explained while Micah worked on the phone. "Mohinder and I went in to get changes of clothes before we let anyone else out into the open."

"Were you able to get everything you needed?"

"Yea. We split up after the thrift store. We four found a car on the west side, I think it's older than Molly, but it runs and it was cheap. Micah said they found a car on the west side."

"And everything's registered?"

"We are. Don't ask me how or why, but Daphne had a fake ID on her, which looks like the real thing." Matt answered.

"It's taken care of." Micah murmured from behind them handing Peter back his phone. "I registered our car under a fake name yesterday. Your phone's ready to go. Our numbers are in it and I set up each group with an e-mail address to communicate if we lose signal." He said nodding to himself. "Oh and everything is untraceable." He added as an afterthought.

"Where is everyone?" Claire asked pretending to casually glance around the area.

"Daphne, Mohinder, and Tracy are heading our way." Matt answered giving a small nod towards the trio making their way over.

The three offer quiet greetings as they come together, then merge into the crowd as a group.

"Hiro and Ando?" Peter asked looking for the two absent men.

"Browsing the shops in the second building and then moving in this direction. They're playing tourists. And listening to make sure no one has noticed us." Daphne answered gesturing to the long building on the other side of the harbor.

"So what's our next move?" Tracy asked.

Peter remained silent for a moment, picturing the eastern seaboard.

"Atlanta. It's a big city, we'll be able to blend in there." He answered. "Nathan wouldn't expect us to stay on the east coast. He'd think we'd go out west, try to get lost in the fields."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Atlanta it is." Matt said quietly. "We'll keep in touch by phone. Whoever gets there first can scout out the area, find closely situated motels we can stay in."

"Fine idea." Mohinder readily agreed.

"Take your time." Peter said, sending a longer message to Matt telepathically. Matt and Mohinder both nodded in understanding. The group quietly said their goodbyes, before breaking apart.

The group was so intent on their next meeting point that they did not notice the two figures in the distance keeping a careful watch.