Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes. If I did, Peter and Claire wouldn't be related and it would be September 22. Also, song lyrics are "Delicate" by Damien Rice—don't own that either.

A/N: After some re-formatting, we decided we needed this. "We" being my beta and me. So, here's the prologue. Thanks to Adrie for being my beta...Enjoy! Dani

Delicate

Prologue

Peter answered the phone and mumbled something in his sleep that resembled hello.

"Pete, it's me. You need to come home."

"Nathan?"

"It's ma. She needs you here with her. I need you, Pete," Nathan was silent. Peter sat up in the bed. "I wouldn't call if it wasn't important."

"It's bad then?"

"Yes. She's worse and worse each day but you know ma—" Nathan sighed heavily on the phone, "How soon can you come?"

"Give me three days," Peter whispered. Nathan said that was good and hung up the phone. Peter sighed and ran a hair through his hair.

He looked out the window at the waves that rolled onto the beach. It was December but the outside would never reveal that. Peter shivered at the thought. It would be cold in New York; there would be snow. He wondered silently if he could handle the snow, if he could handle seeing his mother sick, if he could handle being back in the place he ran from.

The city life seemed foreign to him now. Aside from his stay in Chicago—and that was a long time ago—he hadn't been in the snow or in the city. Chicago. He hadn't been there in two years and he left right after…

Peter sighed and inhaled the fresh salty air.

"You're home!" Claire smiled and jumped into the man's arms. "This is a surprise."

"We won a case this morning. I thought I would come eat lunch with my beautiful wife."

"I didn't make anything."

He kissed her softly, "We can eat sandwiches; I'm not hard to please."

She laughed as he kissed her neck, "Why, Mr. McAdams, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to seduce me."

He laughed. "Maybe I am Mrs. McAdams."