Thank you for the reviews! I really appreciate them and virtual cupcakes to everyone! Yeah!

On another note, thanks for the information about Oysters, I truly didn't know that.

Disclaimer: If I owned Heroes, then why would I be writing fan fiction?

Chapter Two: Meeting

"2006?" I asked, dazed. Everything was different than what I knew. The cars were so sleek and so fast, it was amazing. On the streets were people of every color, the Negro's, Orientals, whites, and they were all whizzing past me. The women were in pants, even though they were not working and some even had tattoos. One woman that walked by me had blue hair. Blue hair!

Hiro nodded. "Yes. We are in Time Square."

"Time Square, in New York City. To save the world from something bad that won't happen since I am here," I repeated, trying to digest all the information that I was given.

Hiro grabbed my arms and whistled and hailed a taxi. The taxi driver was an Indian man and Hiro smiled softly when he saw him, though said nothing that indicated he knew him.

"Hello," Hiro said.

"Hello, where do you want to go my friends?" The man answered back, glancing at us and smiling at me.

To my surprise, the man had a somewhat British accent rather than the Indian I had expected.

Hiro gave him some directions, but I was so focused on what was outside the dingy window that I paid no attention. Everything was so bright, so loud and there was litter all over the streets. I grinned inwardly, knowing that my mother would have a fit if she had to be here. Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming sadness.

I tugged on Hiro's sleeves. "Um, Mr. Hiro, sir-"

"Just Hiro will be fine Beth," He said, and I could tell that he was amused of how flustered I was.

"Okay, Hiro," I started again. This time I whispered, just to make sure that the taxi driver wouldn't hear what I was saying. "What will my parents think will happen to me? Will they think I ran away, or kidnapped or what?"

"Your parents will find you missing. They will not know what to think, however I am confident that they will make their own conclusions soon enough." He informed me quite simply.

I felt a pang of guilt. They may get me upset, but I do not want them to think any harm came to me. I could just picture mother, sobbing while calling the police to come find me. My father would not speak for hours at a time, as he usually did when tragedy struck us. Jack and Stacey would feel bad too, I bet you. Sure, I might get on their nerves at times, but I have always known deep down that they loved me.

Before I knew it, the taxi stopped and Hiro led me to a large apartment building. The outside was made of old brick and had graffiti scattered around it.

"This is where Peter lives?" My eyes wandered to the cuss words written on the walls and felt a lump form in my throat. "Here?"

Hiro nodded and we went down a large hall until we stopped at a door.

"This is it," Hiro said. "Peter will guide you and protect you. You can trust him with your life. He might be skeptical at first, but he will accept you, I am sure."

My mind was filled with so many questions and I could feel my face grow redder.

"Should I tell him the situation though? About how I come from the past?"

He thought about it for a moment before answering. "Yes."

"When?"

Hiro gave a small shrug. "That is up to you.

Again, Hiro looked at his watch and gave an apologetic smile. "I must leave or I might disrupt the space time continuum. Good luck."

He was about to leave, but I held onto his sleeve. "Will I ever see you again? In the future I mean?"

"Maybe. Good bye and good luck."

And with that, he scrunched up his face again and poof, he was gone. I looked back at the door and whimpered. In the room that was past it, held the man that would help me save the world, the entire world.

I managed to get my hand up to the door, as if I was going to knock, but it refused to move an inch. I looked at it, willing it to move, but all I saw was it shake with fear. Angry tears came soon after. How dare Hiro think that I could handle this? I'm only a kid for god sakes! I cringed, if mother was here she would punish me for using God's name in vain.

I gathered all of my courage, which I found was very little, and knocked.

No response. Panic came yet again. Maybe he wasn't home, or Hiro had made a mistake and it wasn't the right person. What would happen to me then?

I knocked again.

I heard someone murmur, "Hold on a second."

After about fifteen second, he opened the door and I inhaled a deep breath. In front of me was a man that had to be no older than twenty-five. He was so young and scrawny; he could not protect an ant! Surely this could not be Peter!

"Do you need anything?" The man asked.

I shook my head and frowned. "No, I don't think so. You aren't Peter, are you?"

The man looked at me and nodded. "Yes, I am," Peter gazed at me with scrutiny. "How do you know my name?"

I was shaking again and felt my breathing increase with each second. "My name is Elizabeth Ann Johnson and I need your help to save the world."

Peter looked at me like I was crazy and looked down the hall, to see if someone put me up to this. He laughed a little. "Save the world?"

I nodded and saw him heading to close the door. "I'm not crazy! A man named Hiro teleported me here and told me to find you so you could help me save the world."

"Teleported?" Peter asked and stopped moving completely. "As if he had super human powers? Like flying"

I nodded; maybe he would believe me after all.

There was some racket coming from the other room and I turned my attention over there. There was a string of cussing and screams and my eyes widened.

Peter seemed to notice it too and sighed. "Do-do you want to come in?" Clearly, he was as overwhelmed by this information as I was.

"Yes, thank you."

I went into his apartment and he closed the door behind him, locking it. His apartment was slightly larger than my living room at home. There were two doors that probably led to the bathroom and the bedroom. I saw the couch and concluded that it was most likely the living room. The walls were a nice blue with pictures all over it and a wooden desk.

"You have a TV," I observed quietly. I was in awe. Mother had insisted that a TV was out of the budget and that we had a perfectly good radio. My Uncle John had a TV and I would spend hours watching it, much to the frustration of Mother

Peter rubbed the back of his neck and looked at me oddly. "Yeah… How old are you, Elizabeth?"

"Oh, just Beth please. My parents only call me Elizabeth when they are mad at me. I just turned thirteen."

"Where are your parents, Beth?"

I looked down. "They are gone."

"I'm sorry," He said quietly. "But won't someone be looking for you? A grandparent, an aunt or uncle maybe?"

I," I felt my knees go wobbly from my nervousness. There was a red couch next to me and I looked at it longingly. "Can I sit down on the couch please?"

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry."

I sat down, feeling much better. "I am from the past. I was born in San Francisco, California in 1942. Hiro sent me here, to the future. If any of my family members are still alive, they have long stopped their search for me."

There was an awkward pause. I could see Peter stare at my clothing seeing if it looked old enough to be in the fifties. I looked down also. I was wearing my hand-me-down overalls and the plain white t-shirt that Aunt Sue gave me for Christmas.

"The past?" He croaked out.

"Yes. I have only been in 2006 for about thirty minutes," My voice faded off. "It is very different from what I know."

"How do I know that you are telling the truth? There are a lot of strange people in New York. Do you have any powers like you told me the man had?" Peter said the last part with excitement, maybe hoping that I could show him what I can do.

I shrugged. "I don't know how to prove to you that I am from the past. I don't think I have any powers either. To be honest, I have no idea how I will save the world, only that it needs to be saved."

This seemed to enough for Peter.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" Peter asked.

"No, I do not." I was distressed. Maybe he would not let me stay. Maybe I did not give him enough evidence and he thought I was just a loon who happened to knock on his door.

Peter sighed yet again. "Do you want to stay here?"

I felt a rush of gratitude and an urge to hug him. "Yes, sir, thank you very much."

"Just Peter will be fine," There was a pause and we both looked around the apartment, not sure what to do next. "Are you hungry?" He asked.

"Oh no," I said, my mind recalling to the incident that happened earlier than evening. "I am not," He looked slightly disappointed. "Are you?"

"No, I just had some pizza."

"Right…." I smiled a little. "Can I turn on the TV?"

"Oh, yeah."

I got up and went to the TV. "My Uncle gets NBC and ABC. Is that what you get?" When I reached the TV, I was confused. Instead of knobs like I was expecting, there were little buttons that were the same silver color as the TV.

"Here in the, well, future," He said that slowly. "We can have over hundreds of channels if we get the right plan. But those are too costly, I just have about fifty."

My mouth went open wider, as did my eyes "Fifty?"

He nodded and smiled. Only this smile was different than something I had never seen. Only half of his smile was upwards, the rest staying down as if he was frowning. "You really are from the past, huh?"

"What happened to your mouth? Why does it only half smile?" I blurted out. There seemed to be no filter between my mouth and brain these days.

"Oh," He touched his own mouth. "It's been like that since I was a baby. I was born with it. It doesn't hurt or anything."

I nodded and continued to push random buttons until I managed to turn on the TV. I gasped loudly when I saw that it was in color and had better picture than my uncle ever had.

"You know," Peter said, taking a piece of plastic with buttons on it and giving it to me. "You don't have to get up. You can just use the control."

I took it from his hands and pressed a button that was on its side. Suddenly, the volume went up. I pushed the other button that was adjacent to it and the volume went down.

"Amazing," I breathed in. There was a cartoon on the television, a small yellow thing, maybe a piece of cheese? A starfish with pants on was talking to the cheese about jelly fishing. Did people in this time hunt for jellyfish? I know that when I went in the ocean and saw a jellyfish, the last thing I wanted to do was to hunt it.

"What program is this?" I asked.

"Spongebob."

I laughed and Peter joined me.

"What a queer name for a cartoon."

"I suppose," He leaned closer to me, as if telling a secret. "It's really meant only for kids, but it's a guilty pleasure."

"Peter, do you have a power like Hiro?" I said, too curious to keep it in any longer.

He nodded and bit his lower lip a bit. "I think so. I-I think I can fly."

"Fly? That's so boss!"

"Boss?" He raised one of his eyebrows.

"Yeah, boss," I paused and suddenly felt very sad. "You do not use the word boss here do you?"

"No. We also only use queer as another word to say that someone is gay."

"Happy? Why would you say someone who is happy is queer?" I was confused.

Peter frowned. "No, queer as in liking someone of the same gender."

I felt my cheeks go hot. "Oh, wow. That is very different than how I use it."

"I'm sure."

I felt the need to change the subject before I used more embarrassing lingo. "So… What's been happening for the fifty-one years I haven't been here?"

Peter sat down next to me and turned off the TV. He old me of the president's that had come and go, at least the ones he could remember. There were a lot of details about Nixon, Watergate and Deep Throat. Finally, and with a deep breath, he told me about what happened on September 11, 2001.

"Why-why," I stumbled through my words. "Why would somebody do that? Attack America, like that?"

"I don't know. They killed a lot of people. Some people think that's the reason that our President got us into war."

I gulped. "War?"

"Yeah. The war has been going on for a few years. It's in the Middle East."

"Wow, things have changed, and I don't think for the better." I felt so homesick at that moment. I wanted to go back to California, see my family and give them a big hug and let them know I was alright.

My eyelids were growing heavy and I let out a yawn. I tried to make it small, wanting to hear about more things that had happened, but Peter caught it.

"Are you tired?"

"A little, but please keep going. What happened after the terrorist attacks?"

Peter shook his head no. "You've been through a lot tonight Beth, you need some sleep."

"I don't have any pajama's." I muttered in my embarrassment.

"Stay here," And he went to the door on the left and, moments later, came out with a t-shirt and shorts.

"The t-shirt is big, even for me so it should fit. The shorts, I'm not sure about. I used to wear it for PE in high school. I was really tiny back then."

I smiled. "Thank you. Where is the bathroom?" He pointed to the door on the left and I changed into the pajamas as fast as I could, rolling my old clothes into a ball. The t-shirt went down to my knees, and the shorts were almost at my ankles.

"Better than my overalls," I thought before going out. Peter thought the same thing. He then disappeared in his room.

I was rearranging the blankets on the sofa when Peter came back in and stopped me.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

I glanced around and said really slowly. "I'm setting up the sofa so I can go to sleep."

He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "I'm sleeping on the sofa, you are sleeping in the bed. I just changed the sheets."

"No, I can't put you out like that. You have done enough, letting me stay and all."

"Nonsense. You are a guest, you sleep in the bed." He made a grand gesture to his room and to his bed. It was large, like mother and father's, and looked really comfortable, compared to the narrow, lumpy sofa.

"Are you sure it's okay with you?"

"It's righto with me, Beth." He responded.

I looked back at him and gave raised my eyebrows, a small smile playing on my lips. "Are you mocking me, Peter?"

"Just a little. Good night, Beth."

"Good night, Peter." I told him and went in the bed. Slowly, I went to sleep, dreaming of talking cheese.

So, how was it? I personally love the last line. Please, review! It helps me update ten times faster! Also, before anyone asks me, this is NOT a romance. I mean, she's only thirteen for goodness sakes!

I wondered where the ball was and then it hit me,

crockergirl