Title: Unraveling

Pairing: Peter/Claire (Paire)

Summary: Claire travels to Ireland in order to learn more about her birth father and ends up running into someone from her past. Wait a minute, isn't he supposed to be dead?

Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes, the characters, or anything associated with them. It's a shame though, because I can think of tons of awesome ideas pertaining to a Peter/Milo sandwich. ;)

A/N: If you don't like this pairing then don't read my fic, it's as simple as that. Constructive criticism is welcome, but out right flames will be dismissed. (See my other A/N at the bottom of this posting if you'd like to gain some insight into this fic.)

Prologue:

Sometimes she missed him. Sometimes she missed him so much that she couldn't breathe. She knew it was wrong, not the missing him part, but the things she felt when she thought of him. Her feelings somehow managed to taint her memory of him. They made her memories into something sick and twisted, something wrong. It no longer mattered that he wasn't really her uncle because he'd died believing that he was. That just made the feelings that she subconsciously associated with him all the more wrong.

She played the game of what if all the time. What if he'd lived to find out about their faux relation? What if he'd allowed his feelings time to grow into something along the lines of what hers had? What if they'd had more time, more of anything at all? Sometimes she wished that they really were related, then maybe she'd be able to shove all of these silly fantasies out of her mind, because that's all they were, fantasies. She was pretty damn sure that that's all they'd ever be, even if he'd still been alive.

She'd be his niece again in a second if it meant that he would have been able to survive the explosion, that he would have been able to live out his destiny and be the hero that he'd always so desperately wanted to be. He was a hero though, even if he never really knew it. He was her hero. He'd saved her more times then she could count, and in the end, she liked to think that she'd saved him too, at least a little bit. That she'd helped him let go of some of the guilt, some of the unbearable load that he'd burdened himself with.

She still kept in touch with the Petrelli's. It didn't matter that they weren't blood, all that mattered was that they were the only ones that could even come close to feeling an ounce of what she felt. They were the only ones who really knew what it was like to loose Peter and why that was such a loss, not just for them, but for the world. Plus, she'd helped reunite them with their real family, with Nathan's real child. The child of his blood, even though he insisted that Claire would always be the child of his heart.

It all began because she was always willing to help a friend in need. She was so much like Peter in that way, not that she'd always been that way mind you. She'd wager almost anything that it was Peter's influence. She'd changed so much since he'd gone away, mostly for the better, at least concerning others, but it all took a hell of a toll on her own well being. She was still by far no saint, but she was ok with that. She now knew that perfect was overrated and that trying to achieve her ever constant goal of normality was basically insane. Normal was overrated too. Peter had shown her that one.

In the short time that they'd known each other Peter had taught her a lot, a lot more then even he knew. He'd shown her how to believe in something, even if you couldn't see it. To always strive for something great, something profound, to help those in need, and most importantly, to love. She knew it was horribly cliché, but she'd never known love, real love, until he'd come into her life. She knew it wasn't just an infatuation either. If that's what it was then it wouldn't hurt so bad now that he was no longer around. She wouldn't ache to the core of her very being. She wouldn't sometimes wish that she was dead too, just so she could be with him one more time.

Talk about teen angst, well, she had it in spades. Not that she was really a teen anymore. As of four months ago she was an official adult. Able to do anything legally, well, anything legal that is, except of course drinking, but she'd never been much of a drinker anyway. Certain events from her past had kind of put her off partying altogether.

Now here she was, angsty teen turned into an even angstier adult. It was finally her time to form her own little niche in the world, to explore it's beauty and pain, even though she'd already seen her fair share of both. She knew exactly where to start too. With the help of a new friend, if you counted a friend of the past two years new, she'd already started the footwork of her journey. She'd always been one of those people who finished what they set out to do and this was no exception.

Tomorrow would be the start of a whole new chapter in her life, because tomorrow she was off on a plane to her destiny and her past all wrapped up into what appeared to be one messy little package. She was finally going to get some answers, answers to things she'd been dying to know for the past year. Answers that she'd get no matter what it took.

She was finally going to find out more about her birth father, and her first stop was Cork, Ireland.

A/N 2: Ok, here are the things you need to know in order to understand this story. Claire is not, I repeat, is not a Petrelli. Everything that happened in Season 1 DID happen. After the finale, Claire's entire family had their memories changed by the Haitian and she went to live with Nathan and his family in New York. Claire went to her new school, which was in New York, and befriended West. They never became romantically involved, they just became really good friends. West eventually tells Claire that he was adopted too and they go off in search of his birth parents. What they find is rather shocking. West is Nathan's child, not Claire. Meredith is his mom and the house fire did happen, but West wasn't inside the house at the time. The Haitian, who was secretly working for Linderman, messed with Nathan, Meredith and Mrs. Petrelli's memories. Finding West's real parent's lead Claire on a search for her own. She ends up finding out who her real father is, but so far doesn't have any leads on who her real mother could be. Her real father is Claude. (Pretend that he's Irish, not English.) Nathan ended up hiring a private investigator to help Claire search for her fathers whereabouts. She doesn't have any luck in finding the man himself, but she does find out that he's from Cork, Ireland. It takes her a while to figure out what she wants to do with this information. She finally decides that she'll go to Ireland, after she graduates High School and before entering College, in order to find out more information about her real father. My story picks up from there. I don't want to give everything away so you'll find out the rest along the way. I might include some flashbacks, but I'm not too sure about that yet. Anyway, enjoy and be sure to review.

Diana