Summary: So much happens around Hesam in series 3 and 4 he can't possibly be completely clueless

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Season 3 Episode 18 - Exposed

"Hesam! Hesam open up!"

"Peter? What the- It's...I don't even know what time it is, but I know my shift didn't finish until 11 so you better have a good reason for this. Where the hell have you been anyway?"

Peter pushed past him into his apartment. "Look I can't explain everything right now ok. I need you to do something for me."

"Really?" Hesam said, shutting the door behind them. "This better be good, because right now I'm not feeling charitable."

Peter held out a DVD and Hesam took it by reflex. "I need you to keep hold of that and if I don't contact you by 7 this morning I need you to send it to these addresses. Everything they need is on the disc."

Hesam took the piece of paper Peter held out. "These are all TV and newspaper addresses."

Peter rubbed a hand through his hair. "I know and I'm sorry to get you mixed up in all this, but I need your help. You're the only person I know not mixed up in all this. They won't know who you are, won't come after you."

That woke him up. "Come after me? Pete, what the hell are you getting me into?"

Peter was pacing now, looking at his watch. "Look, you were right. Nathan, he's done something terrible. Rounding people up - it's all on the disc. Proof. There's something I have to do, I have to make sure someone is OK, but if they're not, or if they try to take me out, I need to know that they won't get away with it."

That was something Hesam understood. He had heard the stories from his own parents and grandparents: sometimes the authorities were the bad guys and when that happened there weren't many people you could rely on.

"OK Pete. I'll do it. But when it's over I'm going to want some answers. Something good."

Peter headed for the door. "Thanks. I don't know if I'll ever be able to tell you what's going on, there's too much at stake, but I trust you to do the right thing. I really appreciate it." He smiled his crooked smile. "Hopefully I'll see you later."

Hesam clasped his friend's shoulder. "Mo'afagh bashed."

"Good luck to you to."

As the door closed Hesam wondered when Peter had learned his language.

----x----

Between Season 3 and 4

That was a face he hadn't been expecting to see again.

"Pete?" He shook his old partner's hand and clapped him on the shoulder. "What the hell are you doing here? Where have you been?"

Peter winced guiltily and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, it's been pretty crazy."

"No shit? Because the last time I saw you you had a DVD with video of hooded people being loaded into a plane. You tell me to send it to the press and then disappear for months? What the hell happened?"

Peter looked nervous, his eyes shifted from side to side as he gauged if they were going to be overheard. The breakroom was almost empty at this time of day.

"It's kind of a long story. You know my brother kind of got mixed up in something-"

"The senator?"

"Yeah." Peter sighed. "It got out of hand. He drafted in the family on damage control, but it's all cleared up now. Last time he was with the President he actually thanked him."

Thanked by the President. It was a different world.

"So what are you doing here? You know you got fired right? You can't just not turn up for shifts when you're a paramedic."

Peter nodded. "I know." He laughed. "I'm embarrassed to say it, but I'm kind of hoping my family name might actually be worth something."

Hesam backed off almost involuntarily. Privilege was something he never got used to. Luckily he didn't think the boss was one to go for it either. As much as he liked working with the kid he didn't deserve special treatment just because of his family. "Right. Well good luck."

His distaste obviously hadn't gone unnoticed. "Thanks."

He was in with the boss only a few minutes before they were shaking hands and Peter's name was going up on the rota. Peter came out with a smile.

"See you later tonight."

"You're back on?"

"Seems that way."

Hesam's jaw dropped. Once Peter was gone he hurried into the boss's office.

"You gave him his job back?"

The boss shrugged. "It's kind of hard to ignore a personal request from the President."

"What?!"

He pointed to the paper on the desk. From the office of the President, personally signed, asking for Peter to be reinstated in gratitude for services to National Security.

What the hell had Petrelli done to earn that?

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Season 4 Episode 9 - Shadowboxing

"Pete what's with you?"

The guy looked grey. He coughed and leaned on the trolley he was stood next to, and though he was obviously trying to smile it wasn't fooling anyone.

Petrelli waved away his question. "Nothing, I'm fine. Just a long day I guess."

"Well it's gonna get longer." He looked his partner up and down. "Are you going to be ok?"

Peter nodded. "Sure, I'll be fine, just give me a minute."

"Ok, I'll meet you in the rig, but don't take too long. We've got a lot of people waiting for us out there and I don't want to mess up our streak today."

Peter smiled and this time it looked more genuine. "I'll be there in just a sec."

Hesam grabbed some supplies to refill the rig and headed back. As he put everything in it's proper place ready for when they needed them he was lost in thought. Their luck had been too good today. Depite what he had told Peter he knew it couldn't last, it shouldn't have gotten them this far. He had been sure that last patient had serious spinal damage, but by the time they had made it to the hospital he had been almost as good as new. He knew Peter was pretty good, but no one was that good.

And what was with Peter today? No running off, no leaving him to just follow on with the rig. No matter what anyone else might say he knew Peter would never causes accidents to just look the hero: he didn't need to. But then what was going on with him? Maybe he had actually listened when Hesam had spoken to him, but that didn't explain the way he was acting. He had looked half dead back there, just like after the last one, and give him a couple of minutes and he'd be right back on his game, pulling saves that were almost miracles out of his ass.

There was only one possibility.

"Hey," Peter said as he climbed in the back, fresh as a daisy. "Ready to save some lives?"

"Sure," Hesam said warily. "But I need to talk to you before we go."

Peter looked wary as Hesam guided him into the ambulance where they would at least have a little privacy. He met his partner's eyes seriously.

"Are you doing drugs?" While Peter spluttered he continued. "Because no matter how much you think it's making you better or faster or more awake, it's not ok?"

Peter crooked that grin again. "Hesam I promise you I'm not doing drugs. OK? I never have and I never plan to."

Hesam met his eyes. He was hiding something, he was sure, but it wasn't drugs. He nodded slowly.

"OK. But whatever you're doing it's got to stop." He put all the authority he could into his voice. "You're not going to do anyone any favours by overstretching. One of these days your luck is going to run out and someone is going to die."

Peter was nodding, but Hesam didn't think he was listening, not really. "I know Hesam. Trust me I would never do anything to put our patients at risk. All I want is to do everything I can to help them. Come on, let's get going."

No matter how stupid it was Hesam couldn't help but trust the rookie. He just hoped he wasn't nearby when the kid finally imploded.

He put the rig in gear. "Sure, let's go."

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Season 4 Episode 14 - Let it Bleed

This was a blood bath. So far no one had been killed, but more than one ambulance had gone back with people in critical condition. What was with these people? You get fired, you go have a beer, you don't go have a beer and then shoot up the place.

He wished Peter was here. Somehow...Somehow things always went smoother when that guy was around. He didn't care what the others said, Pete was his lucky charm. Sure the guy had some weird ways of doing things, but he got the job done. Despite what he had said to the guy, Hesam could handle playing chauffeur if it meant that people lived instead of died. This was just Pete's kind of thing too: he'd run around and before you knew it half the people here would be walking home in a couple of days instead of going home in a casket. Too bad about his brother. Hesam didn't trust Senator Petrelli no matter what Peter said about him, but no one deserved to lose a brother. He just hoped Pete would come back some day.

While his temporary partner looked after a non-critical patient, he wandered around looking for anyone else who needed the same. There was a pretty blond girl by a guy on a gurney waiting to be loaded into an ambulance. Why would they have just been left there? Hesam looked around for the paramedic who was supposed to be treating the guy and rushed over to help when he noticed his colleague fighting to make one of the victims stable enough to load into an ambulance. They worked on him for a few minutes before they finally had him good to go and Hesam left them to load him up, turning to the guy who had been waiting to apologise for the wait.

The guy who was now calmly undoing the buckles of the gurney.

The guy who was sitting up, taking off the dressing and wiping away blood from underneath.

Peter.

Hesam was sure of it. It was Peter. Why was he here? Why wasn't he at his brother's funeral? He looked like he was trying not to cry, the blond comforting him, but why were they here? Not to mention how and why had they fooled a paramedic into thinking Peter was hurt?

They left and Hesam turned away, careful not to let Peter see him, but the moment they were gone he went to the gurney and picked up the chart. GSW to the left shoulder, through and through. That wasn't the kind of thing you could fake...

So what the hell had just happened?

----x----

Brave New World

Breakroom coffee. There was something about the graveyard shift that just wouldn't be the same without it...And yet Hesam was willing to take that chance if it meant not gagging on lumps of undissolved coffee-like powder.

The breakroom TV was turned to the news, the sound turned down. There weren't many people around: everyone who could be spared was out at some carnival. That carnival, the one on the news. Hesam had no idea what was supposed to be so great about some carnival, but he had been cursing being stuck on duty all shift. Ah well, at least he could catch the highlights between calls.

Some guy was just coming on stage now. The greatest show on Earth? That was original. He straightened when screams came from the TV, half his attention on the board waiting for the calls to come in even as he stood mesmerised by what was happening beyond the tiny screen. Maybe that was why he had thought the blur that flew across the screen, taking the carny with it seemed somehow familiar. Things went quiet for a little while, there was lots of reactions from the crowd, speculations, and then a girl, a girl he knew, said she could explain everything.

How did he know her? He couldn't remember, until she started climbing the tower and he remembered: he had seen her with Petrelli after his brother's death. She was the one who had been with him when he got up off the stretcher and wandered away after the shoot out at that office building. What was she doing there? And why was she climbing that tower? She reached the top...and jumped! He was half out of his chair before he realised that they didn't cover the Central Park area. All he could do was watch...As she got herself up, pulled her shoulder straight and smiled. The abrasions to her face closed and faded in front of his eyes until a few blood stains were all that were left. She should have been dead, or at best crippled for life. There she was, talking to the cameras and suddenly Hesam thought he understood. He wasn't sure what he understood, but it was starting to come together. The weird behaviour, the bullet wound, the disappearing for months on end and all that talk from Senator Petrelli about people who were 'different'. Pete had been right: he had had no idea. But Hesam thought he was starting to get one.