Title: Somewhere in the Night
Summary: Set during "Tabula Rasa," Emma worries about Peter while she waits for his return. Spoilers from "Ink" through "Tabula Rasa"
Notes: Title is inspired by the "Quantum Leap" song of the same name written and sung by Scott Bakula. Speaking of "QL," I loved the reference to it in "Once Upon a Time in Texas."
Night fell, and still, Peter had not returned from wherever he had gone in his quest to save Hiro's life. Emma wandered the corridors of Mercy Heights Hospital, worried about the paramedic, and for Hiro. The self-proclaimed "master of time and space" would die if Peter did not make it back in time.
She found herself outside the West Wing's recreation room, looking at the piano she had played with Peter only a day ago. Slowly, Emma went to the piano and sat down in front of it. The notes came tentatively, as they usually did, guided by nothing except her instinct and emotions. As her playing formed into a new combination of colors and music, Emma wished Peter was back with her now, safe and unharmed.
The sound of her music drew a crowd of various hospital personnel, as well as Hiro, to watch and listen outside the recreation room, but Emma didn't notice any of them. She was playing for one person alone, someone who had heard her music before and felt compelled to walk the paths of Central Park until he had found her playing the cello. She hoped that Peter was all right, wherever he was.
Miles away, in a private plane that had taken off from a small landing strip in Georgia, Peter was sleeping, hugging his arms to his chest for warmth. Every so often, he would unconsciously shiver from the cold air in the plane's cabin. In his slumber, he heard and saw the colors of a piano melody. The music was unfamiliar yet soothing, and he felt a cocoon of warmth steal over him. As his body relaxed, he smiled in his sleep.