One-Shot Challenge #2 - Breathe: COLLATERAL
My first entry AND my first fic ever. I think I deserve kind reviews (or at least don't kill my ego too harshly...)
Title: Collateral
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Canon!Paire
Pairings: Peter/Claire
Word Count: 519
Warnings: post S2 (picks up where Powerless ended)
Summary: Her healing body could survive anything, she had reasoned, she shouldn't be surprised she now could live with no air.
Breathe Claire, breathe...
Claire tried again, willing her body to do what her mind was ordering but it wasn't working. It was weird. Not the fact that she still wasn't breathing, she had gotten used to it since... then.
In fact she had barely noticed it at first, and it wasn't until her dad had managed to convince her to go to sleep that fateful night, when she had lied on a foreign motel bed just out of New Jersey, trying to stop the thoughts that threatened to drive her insane that she'd realized something was wrong. She was alive, she didn't have a scar, her body was intact. As usual.
But she wasn't breathing.
She had tried. For a few minutes panic had even washed away all the pain, all the what-ifs, all the questions, all the dreaded answers her mind had been struggling to push away, she had sat on the bed and put a hand to her chest. It wasn't moving. Her heart was still beating, she was sure of that because she could feel the thumping loud and clear in her ears. But no air was coming in nor out. She had opened her mouth, touched her nose, strangely aware that whatever she was trying to do was supposed to be easy, but nothing was happening.
Her healing body could survive anything, she had reasoned, she shouldn't be surprised she now could live with no air. She fleetly wondered if she should try with no food. Or water. Claire had shook her head at the silly suicidal thoughts, she'd been there, done that. But what she couldn't understand was why she couldn't do it. Of course, she thought, I should have known I can go with no air, but why can't I breathe at all?
It had been more than 4 months and she'd gotten used to it, even learned how to pretend like she was breathing as usual (raising suspicions wasn't allowed in Costa Verde), played along with this newfound collateral ability she hadn't asked for, couldn't understand. Until now.
This time something was off. Was her body finally surrendering at the lack of oxygen? No, that wasn't it. But she was, somehow, itching to breathe. It wasn't the same as before, at least not like she remembered it, it wasn't that automatic in-and-out everyone, even her, had learned since birth.
The images on the screen had just changed to a close up of Nathan's face and Claire already longed to see his face again, to make sure she hadn't imagined it.
Peter.
Peter was alive.
Claire gulped. At least she could still do that.
The gunshots shook her from her trance, and everything happened so fast she barely understood it. She went to her room, picked up her phone and dialed the familiar number of her bio-dad waiting for him to answer with her eyes closed. She waited for what seemed like a lifetime.
“Hello?” a distraught voice answered.
Claire opened her eyes and, for the first time in months, took a shaky breath.
“H-hi, Peter. It's Claire.”