Disclaimer: I don't Heroes, and the fundamental concept of this story was inspired by rain and leaves' "Four Months Later" and is used with his permission

Feedback: I'd like it, trust me

A Leap to Safety

As Noah sat at the breakfast table the next morning, temporarily alone in the kitchen- Sandra was out for a walk with the dog and Claire, Lyle and Peter were all still asleep-, he couldn't stop himself from continuing to stare at the picture Mohinder had sent him the previous night, still trying to determine the meaning behind the image.

What events would take place to put him, Claire and (Presumably) Peter in this situation? Had Peter learned something about his time in the Company and killed him with a fine-placed nuclear blast (He had no way to know for sure if he'd actually been shot with a bullet; it could as easily have been Peter's powers)? Had someone discovered them and Peter had only been able to protect Claire while leaving Noah open for attack? Had Peter and Claire decided to run away and taken action to stop him-?

Noah cut off that line of thought before it could go further; he was needlessly speculating right now. If nothing else, while Peter was still the most likely 'suspect' for the identity of the male figure in the painting there was still nothing definitely known either way; for all that he knew it could be somebody Claire had met at school…

Even as Noah thought that, however, he dismissed it. Even if he didn't entirely approve of Claire's… bond with Peter, he couldn't deny that it was there; with the man who meant so much to her in her house already, why would Claire even bother looking for a boy to… form that kind of relationship with… at school?

The sound of a door opening prompted Noah to look up as Sandra walked into the kitchen, Mr Muggles in her arms, providing him with a welcome distraction from his increasingly-circular thoughts; maybe if he got another opinion on the situation- without actually revealing the full details of it, of course- he'd feel better.

"Mr Muggles and I just did two whole miles at the beach," she said by way of explanation as she headed for the cupboard where they kept the dog food. "You wouldn't know it looking at him, but this dog can power walk."

"Have you talked to Claire lately?" Noah asked, moving to shut down the laptop as he spoke; testing the waters to try and work out how things were with Claire and Peter was a good idea in theory, but he didn't want to give Sandra anything explicit to worry about.

"About what?" Sandra replied, as she took a can of dog food out of the cupboard and began to open it for Mr Muggles, who was now sitting on the floor looking eagerly up at her.

"Oh, just about how she's… adjusting," Noah said casually; he had to phrase this in a manner that wouldn't give away anything about his suspicions while still providing him with the information he was looking for. "How about Peter? Has she said anything about him?"

"You mean how he's doing here?" Sandra asked, smiling slightly over at her husband. "Apart from helping him get the hang of copying her power again, not really; she says she wants him to get the hang of copying her power before she tries him on anything else. Why do you ask?"

"Just… concerned, I suppose," Noah replied, privately relieved that Peter hadn't started to experiment with his more… volatile powers yet (The longer it took him to tap into the more offensive abilities he possessed, such as Niki Sanders' strength or Ted's ability to generate radiation, the more comfortable Noah would be). "He's potentially the most powerful man on the planet, but he's currently got no idea how to use his abilities; if the wrong people found out he was here, it could get very… difficult."

Further conversation was temporarily cut off as Claire came down the stairs, prompting Noah and Sandra to turn to look at her, each wondering if their daughter had heard what they'd been discussing and wondering what she would have to say about it.

"Is there something on my face?" Claire asked, after the three of them had stared silently at each other for a few moments.

"Claire, your mother and I need to talk to you," Noah said- grateful that she'd been the one to break the silence; it made things a bit easier for him and Sandra in the short term at least-, as he turned to look at her as Sandra moved to a position just behind him. "About… well, about Peter"

"If this is about asking me to let you send him away or something again-" Claire began, assuming the same resolute expression that she'd had when Noah had brought the idea up during their brief confrontation at Copy Kingdom.

"Nobody is going to make Peter go anywhere, we just have to be careful about who knows about us," Noah said; the last thing he wanted was for Claire to start defending Peter again (He could assure himself that nothing would happen between them, but when Claire started talking so passionately about her uncle he felt he was only within his rights as a father to be at least a little uncomfortable). "Any outsider who discovers Peter's presence here- or even discovered what the two of you can do- could be… a threat to the family-"

"Look," Claire said, holding up a hand as she glared pointedly at him, "I get that you're worried, Dad, but nobody at school has even the slightest idea there's somebody else here apart from the four of us, and I always shut the curtains and go to the spare room when I'm helping Peter get the hang of his powers; the only way someone could find out about him is if they had abilities themselves, and I don't really see them going to the news about it when we can do the same thing to them, wouldn't you agree?"

Her initial defence now completed, Claire assumed a calmer expression as she looked at her parents (Noah wasn't sure whether to be grateful or concerned at her vehement defence of Peter; while it made it clear that she wouldn't do anything to risk him, it did leave him wondering how much she felt for her uncle).

"Besides," Claire continued, "who would I tell? Nobody's even registered me as anything more than the blonde girl who sits around the middle of the classes and doesn't talk much to people; why would somebody want to know if I have a… friend of the family staying?"

"Friend of the family?" Noah repeated, looking curiously at Claire (He ignored the part about her sitting around the middle of the classes; so long as she wasn't specifically in the middle, it wasn't like it was attracting too much attention by sitting in a distinctive place).

"Just what I thought I could use as a story in case somebody does ask about Peter after seeing him for some reason; I'll just say he's a friend of the family and leave it at that," Claire explained, shrugging casually. "I'm not going to bring it up unless somebody actually sees him, of course; I just figured it was best to have a cover story in case it happens."

Sitting silently opposite her, Noah finally nodded.

"OK," he said simply, smiling reassuringly at her. "Good cover story."

"Thanks," Claire replied with a slight smile of her own. "Given that I might want to take Peter outside at some point- I don't want to risk making a hole in the roof when he tries to fly or something, you know-, I figured it would be best to have something to explain what he's doing here-"

"Taking him outside?" Noah repeated, looking at her with a renewed sense of urgency; someone seeing Peter outside would definitely risk their cover. "Claire, that's too-"

"I'll do it once he's remembered how to turn invisible, of course; I'm not stupid, Dad," Claire cut in, looking back at him in frustration. "Look, you need to accept that Peter's going to need to go around if he's going to learn how to use some of his abilities; we can't just keep him locked up like he's some prisoner. He needs help; I'm just… trying to do everything I can to give him that help."

After another brief pause, Noah nodded.

"Well… I can't fault your reasoning," he said, smiling slightly at her. "Just so long as you let us know when Peter reaches the stage where you're going outside, OK?"

"OK," Claire replied, smiling back at her father.


A couple of hours later, Claire had just finished sorting through her bag and her locker to pick out the books she'd need for her next classes when a girl in a cheerleading uniform- she was fairly sure the girl's name was May, based on what she'd heard around school; she just hadn't had the chance to talk to her yet- walked up beside her and held a sheet of paper out in front of her.

"What's that?" Claire asked, turning to look at May as she leaned against her locker door.

"Parental release form to try out for the cheerleading squad," May replied, a smile on her face as she looked at the other girl.

"For me?" Claire said, looking at May in surprise.

"Yep," the other girl replied, her smile- if possible- growing even broader.

Claire couldn't believe it; after all the trouble she'd had applying for the squad at her last school, now people were just giving her the form?

"I'm flattered…" she said, smiling slightly to conceal the slight pang of disappointment she felt at the realisation that nothing could come of May's kindness, "but… I don't think I can squeeze cheerleading into my schedule."

"But you're kind of a hero to the girls in the squad!" May said, incredulity evident in her tone as she looked at Claire.

"A hero?" Claire repeated, looking at May in confusion. "Why?"

"The way you stood up to Debbie on your first day," May said by way of explanation

"Y'know, half of being a cheerleader is having guts, and you have got those in spades."

Claire smiled slightly and looked down at the ground, trying to appear more embarrassed than she was; after having the courage to be prepared to shoot the man she loved- regardless of the fact that she hadn't done it in the end, she'd still been prepared to do so; that had to count for something, right?-, being praised by her peers for standing up to some girl didn't mean that much to her, but it was still nice to be appreciated…

"I'll tell you what," she said, looking back at May as she came to a decision; she'd need to talk to her father about it, but she had a feeling things would work out if she phrased it the right way. "I'll think about it, and then I'll let you know if I change my mind."

"Good!" May replied, smiling back at her. "Then take the release form, just in case."

As soon as Claire had taken the release form, May turned and walked away- evidently she had something else to do at the moment- giving Claire only a brief moment to close her locker before she glanced up and saw that West was walking up to her, a broad smile on his face.

Oh, great… Claire groaned, as the boy in question walked towards her. Him again

It was her own fault, she supposed; she'd been so uncomfortable after kissing him that she'd just walked away from him after he'd dropped her off back at school, waving off his attempts to talk to her by saying that she'd see him tomorrow.

"Hi," West said, still grinning broadly at her despite the fact that she'd kept her expression neutral when she saw him; she might not like the guy, but he at least deserved to hear her reasons calmly and clearly.

"Hi," Claire replied briefly, making sure that her locker was closed before she walked off.

"I can't stop thinking about yesterday," West continued as she began to walk towards her next class, walking along beside her as he spoke. "It was so amazing; I finally have somebody I can be myself with-"

"Excuse me?" Claire cut in, turning to glare at West as the bell rang; class could wait for a few moments, but right now she had to make her feelings to this guy clear. "We share one flight and suddenly you think I like you?"

West blinked, evidently not having expected her to react like that.

Another way in which he's different from Peter, Claire reflected to herself. He might not be perfect, but at least he knows more about people; looks like this guy seriously thought I'd see him differently now that I know his 'secret'

"But…" he said, looking in surprise at her. "I mean… we're both different-"

"And that's all we have in common, West; it's not really enough to build anything more than friendship on, and after the way you acted before I'm not even interested in that," Claire retorted, walking slightly closer to him to look the other 'special' directly in the eyes to better reinforce her point. "Get the picture, West; as far as I'm concerned, you're nothing but a kid who can go a little higher than most people. Your ability's cool, yeah, but that's pretty much all you've got going for you; I'm not going to date a guy just because of that."

"But we flew together-" West began again, now looking almost desperate; if Claire hadn't had the memory of his earlier attitude to 'support' her current actions, she might have almost felt sorry for him.

"Do I have to spell it out for you, boy?" Claire countered, not even stopping to think about using the word 'boy' to refer to someone who could only be about her age at least; if he wouldn't understand it when she tried to be nice to him, she'd just have to get tough and hope that it would make more of an impression. "You're nothing but a kid with an extra trick; as far as I'm concerned, you're still the same pain in the ass you always were, understood?"

"But… but I'm not just that!" West yelled, looking almost desperately at Claire. "C'mon, I was only acting that way because I wanted you to admit-"

"That I'm 'different'?" Claire interjected, her gaze still cold as she looked at West. "I'm not just the girl who can heal, West, but that seemed to be the only thing you were even remotely interested in learning about. There's more to me than my ability, but you clearly weren't care about that; have you even bothered to find out anything else about me since you saw my leg heal? Do you even know if I have any brothers or sisters, do you know if I have any other family in the area, do you even know where I went to school before I came here?"

West's blank look as she listed off the various topics was all the answer she needed.

"That just proves my point; I'm really just the girl who heals herself to you, aren't I?" she said, smirking at him before her eyes narrowed. "Get the picture, West; I'm. Not. Interested."

"Not even-" West began.

"Not even one date," Claire countered, glaring at him as she pointed a finger at him. "Now do yourself a favour and get lost before I add 'stalker' to my list."

For a moment West simply stared back at her, his face a perfect display of confusion and what a part of Claire guilty recognised as disappointment, before he sighed and nodded in resignation.

"Fine," he said simply, his tone sullen with more than a slight trace of bitterness about it. "I'll just… go."

Even as he turned and walked away, however, Claire didn't once think that she might have made the wrong decision by not giving him a chance.

West might have been the 'sensible' choice in terms of someone she could see romantically- at least he was her age and not related to her-, but Claire seriously couldn't see anything attractive about him; he defined himself by what he could do that everyone else couldn't, he'd only wanted to talk to her because she was the only other person he'd met with a power, and hadn't cared about anything other than that.

Peter… even when he hadn't known her name, he'd come to rescue her, not because he'd known about her power- Hell, for all he knew she might not have even had a power-, but just because it was the right thing to do.

He was a hero; West was just a pathetic creep.

Trying to 'replace' Peter with West would have been a bad idea no matter what kind of situation she'd been in when they'd met; trying to do it when Peter was here to remind her of what he'd done wouldn't only have been stupid, it would have been insulting.

Putting thoughts of West out of her mind, Claire turned around and headed for her next class, her mind filled with thoughts of Peter's next 'lesson', unaware of West's eyes on her back as he glared after her.