Title: 24 Hours

Author: Lara-Van

Warnings: None, beyond CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!

A Note From Lara: Hey, in case you hadn't already noticed, the FF people got around to putting up the new character list I sent in! I'm so happy! Now I can write Pemma oneshots and have them really BE Pemma according to the character listings! Yay!

~Morning~

Peter stepped into the file room hesitantly, unsure that she would actually want to see him after whatever it was he had said wrong yesterday. She had her headphones in again, and she was apparently trying to compare a list of names in her hand to a nearly identical one on her computer screen. As she hadn't yet realized he was there, he paused to watch her work. She had a pencil stuck behind her ear and her expressive dark eyes were narrowed as she stared at the screen.

Finally, he took a few steps further into the room and at last she noticed him. Much to his surprise, she smiled when she saw him.

"I think we got off on a... weird... foot yesterday," Peter said. "I thought maybe we could start over."

She nodded, and he felt a tremendous weight lift from his chest. He hadn't realized until now how worried he was that he had really offended her with the file room comment. "Alright then," he said, extending his hand. "My name's Peter Petrelli."

"I'm Emma Coolidge," she replied, shaking his hand and rising to her feet as she did so.

He grinned. "I was thinking, Emma, maybe you'd like to meet someone else like us."

"Like us?" she asked.

"People with abilities," he clarified. "A friend of mine showed up at my apartment last night. He's... actually he's here at the hospital. Something's wrong with him, he's sick. But he can teleport."

Emma bit her lip and glanced at the towering pile of files to be sorted. Then she shrugged. "Alright."

Peter put a hand on her shoulder, making sure that he didn't absorb her power as he did so. "Hold on, then," he told her. And then he closed his eyes. The world shifted to the right, and suddenly they were on the other side of the hospital, in a brightly-lit white room occupied by two beds but only one patient.

"How did you--?" Emma gasped.

His grin widened at her amazement. "That's what I do," he explained. "I switch out. If I find an ability I like, I trade it for the one I have by touching the person."

She let out a nervous laugh. "Wow," she said softly.

Peter walked over to the room's occupant. "Emma, this is Hiro. He's a friend of mine from Japan. Hiro, Emma works here at the hospital. She's the one I was telling you about, the one who sees sound as color."

Hiro nodded, a happy smile all over his face. "It is very nice to meet you, friend of Peter Petrelli," he said, his solemn tone a complete contradiction to his expression.

Emma laughed, more easily this time. "It's nice to meet you too, other friend of Peter Petrelli," she said.

~Afternoon~

A few hours ago, Peter had gone to find someone who might know someone who might be able to cure Hiro, leaving her and the time traveler to get to know each other. Emma was starting to get worried. Peter had said he'd be back within an hour, but she hadn't seen him yet and this whole thing was so strange that every little thing had her feeling jumpy.

The light tap on her shoulder made her spin around, hoping it was Peter, but it wasn't. It was her mother.

The gray-haired doctor smiled sadly at her daughter. Emma, can we talk? she signed.

Emma nodded.

I'm sorry about what I said yesterday, she said. I understand that Christopher was very important to you, and I shouldn't have said what I did. It was uncalled for. And of course you have the right to keep working as a file clerk if you want to, but Emma, you need to get out more. You're so isolated, it's starting to worry me.

But suddenly Emma wasn't paying much attention to what her mother was signing. A little ways down the hall, she had spied a team of doctors and paramedics wheeling a gurney down the hall. And on the gurney lay a familiar dark-haired man, bleeding copiously from a wound on the left side of his chest.

"Peter!" she shouted, but she was fairly sure he couldn't have heard her even if he was conscious. She turned back to her mother. We need to continue this another time, she signed. I just saw... She pointed at the disappearing group. I have to go. "I have to see if Peter's alright."

Before Dr. Coolidge could get in another word, Emma raced away down the hallway after them, following them as far as the doors to the OR, where she was stopped by an attendant who simply would not let her through despite her insistence. And so she sat down on a chair directly outside and waited.

A few minutes later, her mother caught up to her and sat down next to her. Do you know that man? she asked.

Emma nodded. He's... a friend. We met the other day. He's a paramedic.

The older woman didn't reply right away, frowning thoughtfully.

~Evening~

Peter had been out of surgery for several hours, and they were now sure of him pulling through. The only danger now was the amount of blood he'd lost before they managed to patch him back together. Emma sat at his bedside, staring intently at his deathly pale face as he lay unconscious in the same ward as Hiro.

As the sun sank out of sight and the ward began to grow dark, her mother stepped into the room. Emma, it's getting late, she signed. You've been here all day. You really should go home, get some sleep. He'll be fine.

It was tempting. She had been here since he'd come out of surgery, and the hard-backed chairs they put in the wards were uncomfortable. But all the same...

Emma shook her head. "I'll stay until he wakes up," she said.

Dr. Coolidge sighed. Have it your own way then. Not that it would be much of a change. Her expression softened and she smiled at the obvious look of concern for the mystery paramedic who had brought her daughter out of the shell. I'll see you tomorrow.

The crimson light from the sunset began to leech from the walls as the time trickled by and still Emma sat by Peter's bedside, watching him closely.

~Morning~

He woke up momentarily disoriented, wondering why he wasn't at home. Then memory came rushing back. The man Bennet had found, the sound of the gun going off...

Peter suddenly became aware that someone was holding his hand, and with a great effort, managed to raise his head and look around. To his complete amazement, Emma was fast asleep in the chair next to him, clutching his fingers tightly in hers. He glanced around and saw Hiro in the bed next to him, an amused expression on his round face.

"She has been here all night," he said.

Peter allowed his head to fall back against the pillow, completely overwhelmed. Even after spending most of yesterday making up for his faux pas the day before that, he couldn't believe she would go so out of her way for him. He would have done the same for her, but... well, he had reasons for that. It wasn't possible for him to deny that he cared for her a great deal, more than he really ought to care about an acquaintance of a few days. He hadn't felt this kind of connection to someone for... well, he wasn't even sure anymore. Ironic, he supposed, that at a time in his life when everyone was telling him he needed to stay more connected, he should feel so immediately drawn to someone.

At that moment, Emma stirred. She straightened up in her chair and immediately glanced over at him. He smiled tiredly at her.

"How do you feel?" she asked worriedly.

"Like I got shot in the chest," he replied, trying to joke.

It fell flat, and her beautiful eyes looked even more worried than before. Peter squeezed her hand, which was still clasped in his, reassuringly. "I'm okay," he said. Then he laughed. "The healer shot me. How's that for irony? You'd think he'd at least have the courtesy to heal me afterwards!"

A hint of a smile crossed her face. "This is crazy," she said.

"You get used to it, though." He grinned at her. "Hiro says you've been here all night," he said after a moment.

She hesitated, then nodded slowly. "That means a lot to me," Peter said.

"I saw them bring you in. I was..." She paused. "I was worried about you."

Her eyes betrayed the nonchalance of Emma's words- she had been terrified, and if he hadn't already been touched by her actions, that would have clinched it. Even now that he was alright, or headed that way, he could see that she was still scared for him. Trying to reassure her, he said, "I've been shot before. If anything had happened, somebody would have just injected me with Claire's blood and healed me." Something suddenly occurred to him. "Actually, maybe we should try that for Hiro," he said contemplatively.

Finally, Emma let go of his hand, a mixture of shock and something unreadable in her eyes. "I... should probably go," she said.

Peter nodded. "Oh. Right. Yeah, you've been here all night. Sorry."

She smiled. "You're the only person I know who would apologize for being shot," she said. After an apprehensive hesitation, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Then, with a nervous wave she hurried out of the ward.

Wonderingly, Peter reached up and touched the place her lips had touched. He glanced across the room at Hiro, who was trying not to laugh.

FIN...

...for this fic, anyway. Pemma will go on.