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

For a few moments after regaining consciousness, all that Claire could focus on was the blinding pain in the front of her skull; what the hell had just happened to her…?

Then her eyes widened as she remembered precisely what had happened.

Adam Monroe had shot her in the head

So how the hell was she still alive? The last time she checked getting shot in the head was the one thing that was probably guaranteed to take her out; it was kind of hard to heal from an injury when the object that killed her was still there, and nobody could have possibly removed a bullet that had gone as deeply into her brain as she felt that one had gone…

"Claire?" a voice said from off to the side.

Turning in the direction of the speaker, Claire wasn't sure how to feel when her vision cleared enough for her to see that it was only Nathan- he might be her father, but right now he was the last Petrelli she wanted to see at the moment- and Matt Parkman, crouching down alongside her with anxious expressions on her face.

"You OK?" Parkman asked, his gaze constantly shifting to her forehead no matter how much he was clearly trying to stop himself; reaching up with one hand, Claire wasn't entirely surprised when her fingers came away with still-wet blood all over them.

"Ugh…" she groaned as she sat back up, closing her eyes briefly the sunlight hit her- every time she woke up after a fatal wound she always seemed to spend a bit of time disorientated, but this one was proving to be a real pain-, only to open them at a sight she'd never expected to see; her father, lying on the ground only a few feet from her, a massive hole in his face where his left eye had been.

No

It couldn't be…

She may have been mad at him for being a jerk about Peter, but that didn't mean she'd wanted him dead!

"D… Dad?" she whispered, crawling over- she was too uncertain about her balance to even think about standing up at this point- to where the body lay, reaching out to touch the already-cooling skin as she stared weakly at the form before her…

She touched it.

It was real.

Claire couldn't help it.

"NO!" she said weakly, tears almost filling her eyes as she stared at the sight before her. "No… no, he can't be… he can't be…"

"Claire…" a voice said from behind her, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder; Claire had barely registered that it was Peter speaking to her before she found herself enveloped in his arms, her head resting on his chest as she sobbed for the loss of the man she'd never had the time to forgive.

Time

Claire suddenly pulled away from Peter, looking resolutely at him despite the tears that still covered her face.

"Bring him back," she said, her voice somehow managing to sound authoritative despite the fact that she was still sobbing nearly uncontrollably.

"Claire-" Peter began.

"You've stopped Adam; you can do this," Claire said (She knew without needing to ask that Peter had stopped Adam from releasing the virus; he wouldn't have left that sick psycho in a position where he could track that thing down unless he was certain he wouldn't have to worry about him later). "Just bring my dad back-"

"He cannot," another voice said.

Turning to look in the direction of the voice, Claire was briefly confused at the presence of the short Japanese man she'd never met before, but then she recalled what Peter and Nathan had told her about Hiro Nakamura- the time-traveller who Peter had originally met when his future self came back in time to tell Peter to 'save the cheerleader, save the world'- and realised that this must be the Hiro from the present.

Right now, though, Claire didn't care what he'd done for her in whatever time period he came from; all she cared about that he'd just told her she couldn't save her father.

"What do you mean, he 'can't'?" she said, pushing Peter away from her- she really should have done that earlier; even if it wasn't out-of-the-ordinary for people to seek comfort from their uncles, the way she felt when she did it definitely wasn't- as she stood up to glare at Hiro (Peter briefly noticed that the three of them, Matt and Nathan were the only people moving; Hiro must have frozen time for everyone else- including the still-injured Elle and the guards he could see coming out of the warehouse- to give them time to straighten out whatever they needed to straighten out). "He can- you both can- travel in time; you can just-"

"My father told me something when I tried to save him," Hiro said, looking pointedly at Claire. "We have the powers of gods; that does not mean we can play God."

Claire paused.

Did he just say…?

"Your… your father died?" she asked, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and more than a little embarrassed; here she was, yelling at him, and now he was telling her that he actually knew what she'd gone through?

"He was killed by the one you know as Adam Monroe when I was trapped in the past," Hiro explained, his expression giving no indication of his feelings on the matter even as his brief tone made it clear that he had very strong emotions on this topic. "When called upon to speak at his funeral, I attempted to travel to the past to save him, but after I explained my reasons for being there, he refused to allow me to save him, reminding me that part of being a hero includes accepting those occasions when we cannot take action. If we could go back every time things did not go according to the way we wished them to, changing them to suit our desires and hopes…"

He looked solemnly at her. "We cannot grow up if we cannot accept loss. If the world is in peril once more- as it was when older me came back to from the future to warn Peter Petrelli to save you-, such an action might be necessary, but to change time for one person…"

He shook his head. "We cannot do that; if we attempt to dictate what the world should be like in that manner, we will be no better than the villains we face."

For a moment, Claire could only sit in silence, looking between Hiro and the body of her father as she contemplated what the Japanese man had said to her, before Peter broke the quiet that had briefly settled over them.

"He came here to help you," he said, looking solemnly at her as she turned to look uncertainly back at him. "I don't think he always did things I'll agree with… back when he was working for the Company… but he was trying to help you when he came here."

He sighed slightly as he looked at her. "I know it doesn't make up for the fact that he isn't here any more… but I think that's how he'd have liked to go."

For a moment Claire couldn't speak, simply continuing to stare uncertainly at the body of her father, before she turned to tearfully face Peter again.

"He's… he's gone…" she said weakly.

"I know," Peter said, taking her in his arms once more, holding her close to him as she resumed her original cry, softly kissing her hair as she sobbed.

Neither of them would ever know precisely how it happened, but, as they sat there, Peter holding Claire while Matt, Nathan and Hiro looked on, feeling uncomfortably like voyeurs while still being unable to think of a decent reason for leaving, Claire's face tilted upwards and her lips met Peter's.

For a moment, the two of them barely even seemed to register what they were doing, Peter caught up in the kiss while Claire was simply caught up in the realisation that what she had sought for so long was actually happening once again…

Then she remembered why she shouldn't be doing this and pulled away once more,looking up at Peter with new tears in her eyes.

"No…" she said, forcing back the part of her that just wanted to give in to her desires and focusing on the reality of their lives. "We can't…"

"Trust me, Claire," Peter said, smiling at her as he reached one hand up to brush some hair out of her face- he barely seemed concerned about the blood that still remained from when she'd been shot in the head; her lips were clean, and that was all he cared about right now-, "we can do this; after all, you're not my niece."

Claire blinked.

"Wh-what?" she repeated, looking at Peter in momentary stunned silence at his last statement, wanting to believe it while simultaneously being unable to do so.

"You're not my niece; Nathan… well, let's just say he was essentially a living clinic as part of one of my mom's more disturbing plans and leave it there," Peter continued, shrugging slightly as he looked intently at her, a smile spreading across his face. "It's a long story that this really isn't the place to tell you, but trust me; you're not my niece."

For a moment, Claire turned away, staring intently out at nothing in particular, clearly trying to process what she had just heard, before she turned back to look at him with a broad smile. "You totally need to kiss me-"

Peter didn't need any further invitation; pulling Claire close to him once again, he wrapped her in his arms and continued to kiss her, the others sitting around them simply watching silently as the celebrated a love that they'd once been convinced could never be…

Then Peter pulled away, a clear expression of regret on his face at whatever had just crossed his mind.

"I'll be right back," he said, looking apologetically at Claire; it was as though, with what they had just shared, the other people around them no longer mattered. "I just have… something to deal with first."

With that, Peter stood up from where he had been holding Claire, stepped back, and vanished, leaving the rest of them looking in confusion at where the empath had been standing before turning to look at Matt, each of them quickly guessing that the telepath was the best person to ask what Peter was up to.

Matt smiled.

"He's gone to destroy the virus," he said simply.

Before Claire could ask what Matt meant by that, Peter reappeared, holding a small phial with a lilac stopper filled with what looked like dirty water in his hands, staring reflectively at it.

"I saw what this could do," he said, looking solemnly around at his assorted allies, the unspoken knowledge that Adam Monroe had nearly tricked him into releasing this virus hanging over all of them. "That ends now."

With that, Peter closed his hands around the phial, glaring intently at his hands as a brilliant white light flashed from between them, the empath tapping into the formerly-uncontrollable power of Ted Sprague as he focused all that energy onto the phial he held before him.

Finally, the light faded and he opened his hands, revealing nothing more than dust, which quickly blew away in the breeze around them.

"God…" Matt muttered after a brief silence, looking grimly at the warehouse behind them as he shook his head reflectively. "How the hell did we get to this? Your mother, my father… God knows what else they've done…"

He raised his eyes upwards in frustration. "How much longer are we gonna have to clean up their mess?"

"Matt," Nathan cut in, stopping the detective before he could go any further, "you're right. We've been used by these people, manipulated…"

He nodded resolutely as he looked at the same group around them. "But it's over. It stops here. No more secrets."

"You have a plan?" Hiro asked, looking at Nathan with a slight grin.

"Yeah," Nathan confirmed, nodding at the Japanese man. "We take this all public. We expose them for what they are, what they've done, that they're the enemy."

After waiting a moment to let this sink in, he turned to look at Matt. "I want to have a press conference. Matt, I need your help; make sure everybody listens to me."

As Matt nodded, Hiro suddenly looked apologetically at the others.

"I am sorry, but… other matters… may prevent me helping you," he said, looking uncomfortably at Nathan. "My father's death…"

"Don't worry, Hiro," Peter said, nodding reassuringly at his friend. "You do what you have to do; we know how to find you if we need you."

"Right," Nathan said, looking around the warehouse one last time before he indicated Bennet's body, still lying nearby them. "We'd better get… him… out of here; we need…"

Looking over at Claire, he paused for a moment, clearly uncertain what to say about the man who had been the father to a daughter he now learned he'd never had, before he nodded resolutely. "We need to take him home."

As Claire smiled thankfully at him, another thought occurred to Nathan, prompting to look over uncertainly at Peter and Hiro. "On the topic of taking things away… where's Adam?"

Peter and Hiro looked briefly at each other, before Peter shrugged.

"He's… out of the way," Peter said simply.

None of those present bothered to ask for more information; the expression on Peter's face made it clear that, as far as he was concerned, Adam wasn't going to be a problem for anyone any time soon.

With that, Peter reached out to place a hand on Claire's shoulder, Nathan crouching down to pick up Bennet's body as Hiro placed a hand on him and Matt, before all six of them vanished from the warehouse.


Down in the distant south of the world, snow blazing all around them, a small group of penguins stood in front of a large ice-cliff, staring thoughtfully at the figure before them, the figure having somehow appeared on the side of the cliff where nothing had been before, along with at least a foot of ice in front of it.

If the penguins had been capable of thinking about such things as human clothing- or, indeed, if they had been aware of humans in the first place-, they would have noted that the figure in the ice before them was dressed in what was probably a once-fine dark suit jacket and trousers, with close-cropped blond hair and a high forehead, eyes staring out in frustration, fear, and more than a slight trace of pain at the world before him.

In many ways, the fact that the eyes still appeared to be moving despite the temperatures the figure must have been experiencing in his current situation would have been the most disturbing part of the picture before the penguins if they were capable of understanding it.

As it was, after determining that whatever the thing before them was, it wasn't a threat, the penguins just turned around and waddled away, leaving the man known as Adam Monroe to stare out in frustration from the ice that kept him trapped.