Chapter Eight

"So husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend?" Claire asked, the next morning, as she came out of the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe.

"What?" Peter sputtered, trying to ignore the sight Claire so willingly offered of herself draped in the motel towel.

"What should we be? A married couple or a dating couple looking for their first place?"

"How about relatives?" Peter asked testily.

"No." Claire said breezily, waving a hand through the air. "That wouldn't work." She moved to sit on Peter's bed, causing him to tense. "No relatives would rent a one bedroom apartment together. No one would believe us." She continued leaning closer. "They would just think we were having some sordid love affair. Or maybe that I'm your mistress and you want to keep me close, but we have to stay hidden from your wife." She added leaning closer and running a hand across his bare chest. Peter closed his eyes as she placed a feather light kiss on one of his pecs, her hand moving down to skim across his abs.

"Claire. No." Peter said after a moment's hesitation, gently, but firmly returning her hand to her lap.

Why are you fighting this? She thought.

"You're my niece." He answered, not bothering to hide the fact that he was reading her mind. Claire decided not to comment on his invasion of her privacy, because truthfully she wanted him to know how she felt and that whatever connection they had was because of them and had nothing to do with who her bio-dad was.

"It doesn't matter!" She groaned, flopping down on the bed, as Peter jumped up and moved to stand in front of the bathroom.

"It does. You may not think it matters now, but when reality sets in, when you realize how unnatural it is for us to feel this way, then you'll regret it. And you'll come to hate that you can't tell your friends about us, that no one could ever know how we feel."

"I don't care about any of that. Who's going to care about how we feel about each other? Nathan? His opinion doesn't count. It never did."

"How about Noah, or anyone else that we know? I don't want you involved in something that you'll become ashamed of."

"The only one who's ashamed about this is you." Claire grumbled.

"Claire if things could be different." Peter began. "I wish things were different." He finished softly just before ducking into the bathroom to shower.


"The rent is $850 a month and furnished, which is a steal in this area of the city." The realtor said as she gestured for Peter and Claire to follow her into the apartment. "The kitchen was just refinished three years ago, and the carpets were replaced last year."

Claire passed Peter to inspect the kitchen and living room. "There's a lot of space here." She commented, sharing a glance with Peter.

The realtor nodded enthusiastically, hoping that this apartment, their third of the day would attract the attention of this young couple. "The bathroom is also a nice size, it's just through the bedroom." She said, indicating the door down the hall. Claire moved down the hallway, Peter trailing after her as she inspected the bedroom and bathroom.

"So what do you think?" She asked, knowing he'd been reading her thoughts of the apartment.

"I think it's good. The living room is large enough to hold meetings here." He said absently, glancing around the room, his gaze stopping for a moment on the bed that sat in the middle of the room. "The furniture in there looked comfortable too."

Claire groaned, knowing that it would be a battle to get Peter out of the living room and into the bedroom.

"I didn't look that good to me. A little too worn in to be really comfortable."

"It'll be fine." Peter said, moving from the room to go and speak to the realtor.

"So? What do you think?" She asked cautiously, taking in the quiet young man before her. Her eyes shifted to the young blonde woman who sidled up next to him, intertwining her fingers with his.

"What do you think baby? Should we take it?" Claire asked sweetly, gazing up at Peter adoringly, easily falling into the role of the younger loving girlfriend.

"If it's what you want sweetheart." He answered, smiling down at her. "We'll take it." He said to the realtor once he tore his eyes from Claire's.

The woman smiled in understanding, slightly jealous that such a gorgeous, serious man was already taken. But it was quite obvious to her that he was utterly infatuated with the young woman before her.

She quickly pulled out the paperwork, and watched beneath her lashes as the two people before her stood closely together as the man filled out the application and rental agreement. Within minutes they both signed and passed the paperwork back to her.

"So we're all set then?" Claire asked. "Month to month?"

"That's correct. The lease is month to month with the option to extend for a longer time frame." The realtor answered.

"Thank you again for all of your help." Peter said quietly, shaking hands with the realtor after she handed him the keys. He and Claire followed her out of the apartment, making sure she was gone, before they moved to their car and pulled their backpacks out and brought them upstairs.

Claire quickly moved into the bedroom, dropped her bag on the floor and threw herself onto the bed with a heaving sigh of relief.

Peter grinned crookedly as he stopped in the doorway to the bedroom to watch the blonde before him. Claire giggled quietly to herself, causing Peter to cock an eyebrow in question.

"What's so funny?"

"We don't have to stay in a stinky motel anymore! I mean this is insane, we're fugitives, we should really be in Europe by now, not playing house here in Atlanta, but I am so happy that tonight, I get to sleep in a bed, that I know where the sheets came from, and tomorrow and the next night."

Peter laughed, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, as Claire pulled herself into a kneeling position just behind him.

"Speaking of sheets, I take it a run to the store is in order."

"That would be nice. I don't really know where this mattress has been." Claire said coyly, leaning closer so as she spoke, her breath whispered over Peter's skin. Peter couldn't prevent the tremble that went through his body, as he waited silently for Claire's next move. But the blonde surprised him. Instead of taking her actions a step forward, she bounded off the bed and danced to where their bags lay on the floor. Peter's mouth opened and closed a few times before he was able to find the right words.

"What, what are you doing?" He asked, watching as Claire danced around the room, placing their bags on the bed.

"Getting ready."

"For what?"

"Shopping of course. If this is going to be fugitives' headquarters, we need to be prepared."


A few hours later, Peter and Claire returned to their new apartment laden with bags from a local discount store. Claire eagerly moved into the bedroom, stripping the bed and putting on new sheets, then moved on to the closet to hang up their clothes. Peter stayed safely in the kitchen, putting groceries into the refrigerator smiling as he listened to Claire humming from the other room, amazed at her ability to adapt to this so well. Hearing the bathroom door shut, he pulled the cell phone out of his pocket to call Matt.

"We found an apartment." He said as soon as the other line was picked up. "Any luck yet?"

"We're narrowed it down to two." Matt answered. "Mohinder's having a little more trouble. Apparently Tracy is very picky about her living situation. Especially if it is going to be semi-permanent."

Peter grinned, imagining the scientist's irritation of having to deal with something, in this case the condition of their residence, as unimportant.

"We're right off of 5th street." Peter said

"Really? One of the places we were looking at is right near there. I'll talk to the others later."

"How's Claire handling everything?" Matt asked suddenly.

Peter started, looking at the phone as if it could tell him exactly what Matt was getting to.

"She's good. Glad to be settled somewhere for the time being."

"I can understand that. Everyone's getting antsy over here."

Hearing the bathroom door open, Peter said. "Matt I don't mean to cut you off, but I should give the phone to Claire. Let her dad know she's in one place for the moment."

Matt readily agreed, telling Peter he'd call as soon as he knew what his group planned.

"Who were you talking to?" Claire asked, coming up behind Peter.

"Matt." He answered, snapping the phone shut lightly.

"Any luck yet?"

"No, they narrowed it down to two places, one is only a few blocks away, so I think he's going to try to get that one."

"That's good." Claire said, glancing around the kitchen. Sensing Peter's gaze on her, she returned her eyes to his and smiled in question. "What?"

Peter held the phone out to her. "You should give your dad another call. Let him know you're settled at least."

Claire nodded in agreement, taking the phone from Peter and calling her dad while she moved around the apartment to gather up trash from their purchases.


An hour later Claire walked out onto the street, a trash bag gripped tightly in her hand as she made her way to the dumpster. Within moments Peter emerged from the apartment, worriedly glancing down both sides of the street, before his gaze alighted on Claire. He breathed an obvious sigh of relief, before moving to take the bag from her and help heave it into the trashcan. He dropped his hand to the small of her back to guide her back inside the apartment building, glancing down both sides of the street before slipping inside.

"We've found them sir." A man spoke into a phone from inside a car that was parked in an alley across the street from the apartment.

"Where?" The voice on the other line asked.

"Atlanta."

"Really?" Nathan asked, rubbing his chin. "They didn't go very far did they?"

"No sir." The man answered. "We almost lost them after they left Maryland. We thought they were headed west to Texas."

"Well then it's a good thing you managed to find them." Nathan sneered.

"Yes sir." The man answered sitting up straighter in his seat. "We have them now. What would you like us to do?"

"Nothing." Nathan said severely.

"Sir?" The man questioned.

"You heard me! I said nothing. You will do nothing until I give the order do you understand? Your job is to watch them and report back to me, is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good." Nathan said, hanging up the phone. "What are you doing Peter?" He asked out loud to the empty room.


Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for all of the reviews! And never fear, Peter won't be able to sit still while Nathan is still running the project for much longer.