Post by Julia Seals on Sept 25, 2007 3:51:08 GMT 1
Title: Saviors
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Niki/Claire
Rating: PG-13, maybe R
Summary: AU. In order to get away from everything after discovering her powers, Claire runs away and finds herself in a small town in Nevada, where she meets Niki, who has lost everything because of her debts…
Fandom: Heroes
Pairing: Niki/Claire
Rating: PG-13, maybe R
Summary: AU. In order to get away from everything after discovering her powers, Claire runs away and finds herself in a small town in Nevada, where she meets Niki, who has lost everything because of her debts…
CHAPTER ONE-Butterfly Bullets
Claire had been on the road for so long, taking buses and even hitching to get to where she was going. But the problem was, she didn’t know exactly where that was, but she couldn’t travel anymore, she needed to rest. So for now, this small town in god knows where would have to do.
Nevada, that’s what the last road sign had said, right? Claire struggled to remember, but she did want to have some idea of where she was. She had been walking for a while now on foot, and it was so quiet, too quiet. Once or twice a car would drive by, bringing Claire out of her thoughts.
Claire looked around as she walked the streets of this town, taking note of the diner, she would have to go there to get some food in the morning. And as she walked through the streets, she eventually came to a motel.
There was no one at the front desk when Claire stepped inside. She needed a bed, somewhere to lay her head even if only for the night, so she wasn’t going to wait for someone. Looking behind the desk, she saw the keys to the motel room, sitting in a box. After taking a brief look around to make sure no one was watching, Claire went behind the desk and grabbed one of the keys.
25, that was the room number engraved on the key. Not knowing where that would be, Claire decided to follow one of the hallways that spread out from the desk. 19…20…22…23…24…25. This was it, the room on her key. Claire used it to open the door and immediately moved over to the mattress, where she lay down and shut her eyes.
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Morning came all too soon, but Claire new that she needed to go get some food. Nevada wasn’t exactly the place she had in mind, but it would have to do for now. Maybe she could stay here; she did have a motel room and didn’t have to pay for it. Granted it was stealing, but at the moment she didn’t care.
Claire made sure to have the motel key on her when she left the room. She walked past the front desk and smiled to the guy standing there, who obviously did not recognize her. But she had a key, so there was nothing he could do but assume he had given it to her. With her she had a small amount of cash, enough to get something to eat.
The diner was just down the street, so Claire made her way down to it. It wasn’t very full when she walked in, she was one of the very few customers. She took a seat somewhere in the middle, not wanting to be near to the door, it was just habit really.
“Can I help you?” Claire looked up as she heard someone ask her, and was met by deep blue eyes. The waitress smiled, but it just seemed fake, the eyes seemed so much more deeply sad. Claire smiled as well, thinking that if someone where to fake a smile for her, she should do the same.
“Yeah, um can I have a glass of water please?” she asked, placing her order. “And some waffles.” She was hungry and needed to eat, but Claire knew that sooner or later she would have to get a job to pay for food, and probably, eventually the motel room.
“Of course,” the waitress said as she left, once again leaving Claire to her thoughts. How could something like this happen? She knew she had to get away from there, before anyone found out, especially her father. She could only imagine the look on his face, the shock at first, and then the realization that his daughter’s a freak. Claire would rather not see him at all then have to deal with it.
But as Claire thought about everything, she heard the loud crash of glass breaking. She didn’t really know what had happened until she looked down, and saw the bullet lodged in her shoulder. No, she couldn’t take it out, not here in public places. Her best chance was to get out of there, run to a place where she would be able to remove the bullet and heal.
Claire stood up from her chair, pushing it back as she looked around. At the moment she really regretted the seat that she took, if she had been closer to the window it would have been easier to slip out unnoticed. She noticed that her waitress had began to move towards the back door, and Claire opted to take that exit as well.
Once in the back, Claire leaned up against the wall and dug her hand into her skin where the bullet had made its impact. It was deep, as if the shot had been aimed directly for her. Was it? No, it couldn’t be, who would want to kill her? She was just a small town girl from Odessa. But maybe they knew about her ability, maybe they wanted to hunt her down because of it.
The bullet was removed, and instantly Claire’s shoulder began to heal, as if she had never been shot. Of course the removal hurt, as well as the actual getting hit by the bullet, but she was fine now.
“I’m sorry,” she heard, the already familiar voice of the waitress. “I didn’t think they would find me. I didn’t mean for anything like that to happen.” So whoever the shooter was, he was after the waitress, not Claire, and Claire couldn’t help but breathe a small sigh in relief. But then relief left her emotions as she realized that the waitress could have seen her heal. “Are you alright?” She seemed genuinely concerned
“I’m fine,” Claire said, although she turned away slightly as to not have her shoulder seen. She raised her hand to it, in a mock of pain. “I’ll be fine.” But obviously the waitress was more concerned than Claire had thought, feeling guilt for what had happened obviously. She moved closer to Claire, and apologized once more.
“You should really get that checked out,” she said, pointing to the wound. Claire was about to protest and respond, saying that she really would be fine, claiming that the bullet had just skimmed the side of her shoulder, even though that was far from the truth. But then there was the sounding of another gunshot, coming from the end of the alleyway.
In an instant, before she could even think about it, Claire pushed the waitress aside and stood in the path of the bullet. It hit her in the chest, just above her heart. This bullet was aimed to kill, not just a drive by. Claire fell backwards, feeling the immediate pain of the bullets impact. She would be alright, she knew that, but it still hurt in the moment.
When Claire opened her eyes after about a minute or so, she saw the waitress leaning over her, checking her pulse. “I’m alright,” she breathed as she sat herself up, although she knew it was far from believable.
“Why’d you do that? You could have died.” The waitress was crying now, tears falling from her cheeks. “You should have just let me get hit.” It seemed liked she didn’t want another life on her hands, like someone might have died before. It seemed as if she would rather die herself.
Claire needed to heal herself, but there was no way she would do this in front of the waitress. What if she had already noticed the healed shoulder? No, otherwise she would have said something. “I gotta go,” she said as she pushed herself off the ground. And with that, she left the alleyway and ran back to her motel room.