Title: The Perfect Murder

Author: Cesia Illuser/Warangel88

Fandom: Heroes/Pathology

Pairing: Claire/Ted mentions of romantic Claire/Peter

Warnings: Spoilers for S1 of Heroes up to Fallout before going AU, Slightly AU for Pathology. Possible OOC for some of the characters

Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes or Pathology. Thanks Ellie for betaing.

"You will never pull be able to pull of the perfect murder," Claire uttered softly, slightly twirling the straw of her coke as she stared at the pathologist, who had a similar face to her hero.

But the two of them couldn't be farther apart, despite the fact that the two of them had similar occupations, as silly as it might sound, a hospice nurse and a pathologist could be similar. In a way they are, both pathologist and hospice nurses have to take the same courses, both deal with the dying or dead and they both wear scrubs; she added the last part more to her personal amusement than anything else.

Ted Grey could be the darker shade of Peter Petrelli, just as Peter Petrelli could be the lighter half of Ted Grey, the perfect example of light and darkness, yin and yang.

Not that she suddenly had an interest in Ted Grey; getting involved with him would only lead for him to find out her secret, and besides, she loves Peter. But she would be lying if she said that Ted Grey didn't fascinate her in some form. Maybe it's because of his physical likeness to Peter Petrelli, or that he was the exact opposite of him, because she honestly couldn't see her Peter doing drugs or killing people for the fun of it.

He stared at her sceptically, "And why is that?"

"Because it's already been done," she answered smoothly as if she were stating the weather or something, taking a small sip of her drink. "Four years ago."

"How?" he questioned, obviously intrigued by the story. She nodded, placing her caffeinated beverage back on the table.

"Four years ago a waitress was murdered during the middle of the day her head was cut open and her brain taken out in a matter of minutes. She was missing for only three minutes before another waitress opened the kitchen door and found her dead with the murder out of sight," she paused lightly allowing the pathologist take in the information. "The CSI took all of the knives in the kitchen, but none of them had blood on them. I may not be a pathologist or doctor but I believe it would take more than three minutes to cut open a head and get away."

He nodded slightly; it would take more than three minutes to cut open a head, especially a human, and to get away from the crime scene. "That's impossible."

Claire smirked as she reached out for a manila folder next to her, placing it on the wooden table surface and sliding it across gently, so he could look through the file.

He looked through it silently, noting the clippings and photos that each paper had attached to it, the one with the waitress was the first one he saw, and he noted the last time a person saw the waitress and the time of death was indeed three minutes.

He stared at the report that the pathologist did on the body. Apparently the killing was so high up and connected to several other murders that a female pathologist who worked for the FBI performed it. Apparently, even she was stumped on how the murderer could have killed the waitress in a matter of three minutes.

He stared at the blonde across from him slightly taking in her beauty, her golden locks falling into slight curls around her shoulders and bright green eyes. She looked young, like she'd just got out of high school young, but none of the less very attractive.

"And you know all of this, how?" he questioned leaning slightly back in his seat so his back touched the plastic of the booth and crossed his arms over his, gazing at the beautiful blonde.

"Maybe murders like this fascinate me and I did my research," she mused lightly before her lips curled into a slight smirk. "Or maybe I was a witness at the next murder. The only question is: do you know how the guy killed the waitress in three minutes without a blade?"

He frowned slightly. Maybe this really was the perfect murder, considering that even he was stumped, and he is sure his friends would be as well. Nobody could slice a person's head off in three minutes, take the brain and not get caught. It was impossible.

But this girl has seen it.

"It's impossible," he finally uttered slightly defeated as he took a sip of his coke, never taking his eyes off the blonde.

"Maybe it is for a normal human," Claire granted, dipping a French fry into some ketchup before popping into her mouth.

"Are you going to tell me how?" he questioned watching the girl eat and swallow for a moment, he was far too intrigued to eat, even though his stomach was growling slightly at its lack of food for several hours.

She frowned slightly, "Later the same day, he appeared at a high school that was in a town half an hour away from the place where he killed the waitress, and this time he had a witness."

"You were the witness," he muttered.

"I was," she nodded and closed her eyes as if recalling a bad memory. "And I can assure you he didn't use a weapon of any kind. He used his mind to split open the head and it only took a matter of seconds, minutes."

He stared at her sceptically; the idea that people have abilities is a bit farfetched to him, or maybe it was because a scientist always liked to look for the logical answers. The fact that a person had an ability, such as being telekinetic, sounded unlikely and impossible to him.

Claire smirked, "If he wasn't telekinetic then how did he slice open her brain, take it out, and escape all in three minutes? And everything in that file is real."

She slowly stood up placing a couple of bills on the table to pay for her food, as she started to leave.

"So what happened to the guy?" he questioned, vaguely curious and stopping her from leaving the diner, as Claire fixed her gaze onto him again.

"Got his head cut off three years ago," she answered. "It's ironic if you think about it."

Ted Grey slowly stared after the blonde as left the diner before he picked up the file and look at the contents again.

Either way, this murder was the perfect murder.

Because, in the eyes of a rational scientist, even he couldn't figure out how the man did it in three minutes, and got away from the crime scene with the brain.

-the end