“Ugh”, I said, flopping on yet another park bench. I had been looking for him all day. “If I don’t find Rebel soon, I’ll turn myself in”, I grumbled. I knew that I would never really turn myself in to the organization that rounded up people with abilities. I was too irritated to care about what I said. I have an ability like many others, but it seemed insignificant to me. Some people could paint the future, others could stop time and teleport, and still others were invincible except for a soft spot. I knew of these abilities because of my own. I could talk to animals, and I had heightened senses.
I had been walking in front of video cameras all day, casually mentioning that I needed the help of a rebel. Whoever watches the videos will probably just think I was just talking about a regular fourteen-year old girl’s fantasy. Although, there was always the chance that the wrong person would hear me. I still didn’t understand why my abilities would be paid attention to, though.
I sighed when I saw the sun setting. Yet another day without finding Rebel. I barely noticed when a curly-haired boy sat next to me. I glanced at him to make sure that I didn’t know him. Nope. I always tried to avoid anyone from my past. Once people had noticed that I was different, I became a freak in their eyes. My parents would have defended me. But they died when I was three. All I could remember was my mother and I playing a game, then my father shouting something. My mother jumped up and yelled at me to hide under my bed. Even over the blaring music my father had on, I heard the screaming. I made myself go to sleep and awoke to sirens. I lived with foster parents and went to school for six years. I was smarter than the others, so I got bored easily. I got in trouble often, but kept my grades high. I finally couldn’t stand it any longer and ran away. I had to keep quiet for about six months, because of search parties. They finally quit, so I came out of hiding. I lived on my own for a while, but then he found me. He wouldn’t let me live on my own after he figured out that I was alone. He made me live with him. He was going to send me to school, but he saw how smart I was and let me teach myself. He was kind, understanding, and taught me almost everything I knew about being a good person. We almost never fought and called each other brother and sister. Then he left too….
I hardly heard the boy when he said something to me. “What?” I asked, coming back to the present.
“Who are you looking for?” he asked.
My eyes widened and I had to stop my mouth from popping open. I quickly composed myself. “What makes you think I’m looking for someone?” I asked defensively.
The boy shrugged. “You just look like it”.
I eyed him carefully for a second. “I guess you could say I’m looking for a rebel that can help me”, I replied, trying to suppress a smile to my private pun.
The boy smiled and said,” Well, you found him”.
I stared at him, dumbfounded. This couldn’t be him. “But you’re…..” I trailed off.
“Just a kid?” he finished for me with a smug look. He didn’t look like he was
bluffing, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Prove it”, I said, narrowing my eyes.
The boy was still smiling as he reached into his pocket. I laid my hand on mine, ready to pull out my tazer. The boy pulled out a complex-looking cell phone and set it face-up on his leg. He set his hand so that his little finger was barely touching the screen, and he focused his eyes straight ahead. Barely a minute had passed before my phone rang. One hand was still on my pocket, so I took my phone out with my other hand. I flipped it open and a message appeared. I am Rebel. I stifled a gasp and took a second to calm myself before I slipped the phone back into my pocket. I turned back to the boy, meeting a smug face.
“For your sake, I hope you are Rebel”, I warned.
The boy’s smile faded and he asked,”May I see your phone?”. Still suspicious, I looked at him carefully. He steadily met my look.
Finally, I sighed, giving in. “You break it, you buy it”, I said as I passed my phone to him.
“Thanks”, he said absently as he held the phone with both hands. Then he pressed a forefinger to the screen.
“Hey! You’re not supposed to-“, he interrupted me with a dark look and I closed my mouth. The boy turned back to phone and stared at it. Minutes passed and the boy finally handed the phone back to me. “What was that all about?” I asked, checking my
phone before I put it back in my pocket.
The boy shrugged. ”Precautions”, he said simply. I guess he was Rebel.
“I have precautions of my own”, I said. I smiled as I revealed my many “precautions”; the tazer, two pocket knives, and a dagger tucked into my shoe. Rebel smiled.

I suddenly realized something, and glanced nervously at the camera overhead. Rebel followed my gaze and said, “Don’t worry. Since I got here, everything has changed to snow”. I nodded, relieved. I opened my mouth to speak, but Rebel cut me off. “Let me ask the questions first”. Seeing that I wouldn’t protest, he continued. ”What is your name? What can you do? Why do you need my help?”.
“My name is Lauren”, I said. “I have heightened senses and can talk with animals”, I cringed, knowing how lame I must sound. Rebel nodded for me to continue. “If anyone comes to take me, I doubt I could escape”. Rebel raised an eyebrow but said nothing. “So, for about a month now, I’ve been tying to find you. I figured that maybe you could find someone for me to pair up with, or maybe I could help you. You know, like a sidekick or something”, I finished.
Rebel looked at me and said,”How can you help me?”. I began to get angry, but realized that he meant it as an honest question, not a smug remark.
“Animals tell me things, so I know a lot about people. I know about the situations of people with abilities, the important ones anyway, so I know who to trust. That’s how I’ve stayed alive. Sometimes, though, my, um, sources get their information wrong, and I can’t afford to take that chance anymore”. Rebel nodded again.
“All right, your turn”, he said.
“My first two questions are the same as yours”, I said. He opened his mouth to speak, but I put a finger up to stop him. “Hang on. Do you like animals? ‘Cause if you don’t, this won’t work”, I added. Rebel raised an eyebrow, obviously thinking that I was very strange.
“My name is Micah, and I can talk to machines whether or not they work”, he replied. “And I like animals a lot”, he added, grinning.
After a few seconds passed without either of us saying anything, I took a deep breath.
“Okay. So are we joining forces or what?” I asked.
He eyed me carefully. “Hmm…Okay”, he said.
“’Okay’, what?”.
“’Okay’, you can help me”, he said, rolling his eyes.
A smile quickly spread across my face. “Really?” I asked, unbelieving.
“Sure. If you have anything to bring, we need to get it now so we can get going”.
“My stuff is at my apartment”, I said cautiously.
“’kay, let’s go”.
“Are you sure about that?”.
“Yeah, why not?”.
“Ok. Don’t say I didn’t warn you”, I said with my hands up in front of me, ignoring his question. He rolled his eyes, but followed me when I started walking. There was a bus stopping ahead of us, apparently going in the same direction we were. Micah was walking beside me now, and I saw him shoot me a dark look as I passed by the bus instead of getting on it. We finally made it to my apartment building after another block.
“You live here?” he asked, looking up at the vacant, dirty apartment building.
I merely shrugged as an answer. I quickly looked around to make sure that no one was nearby, then slipped around to the side of the building. Micah looked only slightly surprised when he saw the scuff marks and cracked wood on the side door. I took a few keys out of my shoe and unlocked the three locks on the door. I closed the door behind us and climbed up the creaking stairs. The inside of the building was about as dirty and dusty as the outside.
As we reached the top floor, Micah finally said something. “This is the last floor. You’re not going to tell me that you live on the roof, right?” he said.
I laughed. “No. Just down here”, I replied, gesturing down a hall to the right.
Micah groaned.
“Come on, a long walk never hurt anybody”, I said.
“It’s not the walk I’m uncomfortable with”, he said. ”It’s just that I’m afraid to go much further into this ancient death trap”.
I laughed and continued to my room. The numbers on the last door were gone, but the door was lighter where they had once been. “Home sweet home”, I said as I pushed the door open.
“This is where you live?” Micah said, obviously surprised.
My apartment was not a pretty sight. Peeling paint, dirty….everything. Barely anything looked relatively nice. As much as I had cleaned the place, it still didn’t look too good.
“I warned you”, I said with a shrug. I walked over to a pile of my stuff and started packing. I dumped the useless stuff out of my backpack and filled it with everything I needed, including my “Cash Stash”, my guitar, and my laptop.
“You sure it’s a good idea to bring that?” Micah asked when he saw me grab my guitar case.
“Yeah, I am”, I answered firmly.
He shrugged and changed the subject. “Nice laptop”, he said.
“Thanks”. I stuffed a hard black case in the remaining space in my backpack, and got up. “Done”, I said as I slung the backpack on. Micah nodded and we walked out the door.
When we finally got back outside, Micah asked, “Ready?”.
“Sidekick is ready to follow”, I replied, saluting.
We were both still smiling as we got onto a bus. I was used to being outside most of the time, so I fidgeted uncomfortably.
“Where are your parents?” Micah asked.
“They died when I was three”, I replied unemotionally.
“Really?”. He almost sounded excited.
“Um, yeah. That’s not usually the response I get, though”.
“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just that my parents are dead too. It’s nice to know someone else with no parents”, he said quickly.
“That’s okay”.
“What powers did your parents have?”.
I shrugged. “I dunno’. I don’t remember much”.
“Oh”. He sounded disappointed.

Micah and Lauren meet Peter, Angela, and Claire. Micah leaves after a while to continue helping people with abilities, but Lauren is talked into staying with the Petrellis.

“What’cha doing?” Peter asked as he flopped on a chair in my room.
“Oh!” I exclaimed. I hadn’t heard him come in, lost in thought.
“Sorry, did I scare you?” he asked, clearly amused.
“Uh, no. You just startled me. I was thinking about something else”, I replied.

“Obviously”, he said, scrutinizing my face. “You look like you’re a million miles away”, he added, concern touching his voice.
I looked down at the watch I was holding. “I’m fine. This watch doesn’t work”, I said, dangling the watch from a finger. “I was just thinking about an…. old friend that I used to have that could fix any watch, anytime, anywhere”.
“Cool. What are you doing the rest of the day?” he asked casually.
I forced myself not to groan and roll my eyes. Ever since I had been with the Petrellis, Peter had been trying to get me and his niece, Claire, to go shopping or something together.
“Oh, I don’t know. The usual. Getting info, rescuing strays, you know, stuff like that”, I answered. “When is Nathan coming?” I asked before Peter could ask me anything else.
He looked at me oddly for a second, but answered anyway. “Should only be a few days now. Why do you ask me that every day?”.
“I’ve never met a senator before. Plus, he’s your brother, so he must be nice”, I replied with a shrug.
He snorted. “Whatever”, he said, raising his hands in front of him. He got up and headed for the door.
“Tell a bird if you need me”, I yelled to him. He waved a hand to show that he had heard me as he went to the door.

Three uneventful days of waiting passed for me. I made sure to use the time I had wisely. There was only so much I could do until Nathan got there, leaving me pacing the floor of my room half the time.

Finally, the day came when Nathan was supposed to come home. I went over all my plans two or three times and then paced the floor for an hour. Thirty minutes or so before Nathan was to arrive, I grabbed a book and headed to the main room of the Petrelli household. The words in the book blurred together as I tried to read and think at the same time.
I was still on the first page when I heard the front door open. Only when I heard Angela exclaim, “Nathan! Oh, Nathan, it’s so wonderful to have you home!” did I shut my book and get off the couch. The greetings and happy voices reminded me that I didn’t have a family that I could share that with. I shook off my sadness when I heard them coming down the hall. Angela and Peter come in, followed by a man and Claire. I recognized the man as Nathan Petrelli from the many pictures around the house.
“Oh”, he said when he saw me. “Who’s this?”.
“Nathan, this is Lauren. Lauren, Nathan”, Angela introduced us.
“Ah. So this is the smart young lady you’ve told me about. Nice to meet you. I hope your stay here has been good so far”, Nathan said, reaching a hand out for me to shake.
I reached out my hand to shake his and replied, “It’s been great here”.
When we dropped our hands, Angela said,” Time for dinner!”.
While we ate, I noticed that Angela and Peter looked happy and pained at the same time. Claire could barely force a smile. I knew why, of course, and felt sorry for them. Soon they wouldn’t have to pretend.
The rest of the night went well, but I figured I wouldn’t start with my plans just yet.

The afternoon the next day was the beginning. We were all sitting in the main room. I took out my watch and absently stared at it. Occasionally I turned it over, but I wasn’t paying any attention to it. Instead, I was listening to see if anybody noticed what I was doing. Eventually someone did notice.
“Thinking about that old friend of yours again?” Peter asked, nodding to me.
“Yeah”, I replied, looking up from the watch.
Nathan stared at me oddly. “May I?” he asked, reaching an open hand to me.
“Good luck”, I said as I handed him the watch.

He examined it carefully, turning it back and forth in his hands. Without looking up from the watch, he said “Could I hang on to this? I’ve taken an interest in clocks lately”.
“Absolutely”, I replied.
My plan was going well so far. Angela, Peter, and Claire exchanged worried glances. I stayed smiling to make sure that they still thought that I was oblivious.


We were eating breakfast together in the morning when Nathan passed by my seat and dropped my watch in front of me.

“I don’t know how, but I fixed it”, he said on his way to his seat.
“Wow”, I said, examining the watch. ”Thank you”. I put the watch on my wrist and finished eating.
Nathan looked at me oddly like he did yesterday. “Are you sure we haven’t met before?” he asked.
I had to choose my words carefully. “I’m not sure”, I answered slowly. I finally had to excuse myself to escape his steady gaze.

Every day I gave him a broken watch or clock to fix and played old songs that me and my “old friend” had listened to. Nathan kept asking me if we had before. I had to force myself not to shout, “Yes! We have met before! You’re not Nathan!”, but I couldn’t do that, not yet anyway.

Three days after Nathan arrived, Angela took me aside before breakfast. “Lauren, I appreciate you giving Nathan something to do, but it is distracting him from his work. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t give him anymore, um, watches”, she said politely.
“Oh, okay”, I responded innocently. Darn. This was going to be harder than I thought. But, harder or not, this had to be done.

Every day Nathan seemed more like, well, himself. It was so hard. I missed him so much, and it wasn’t fair to let him keep thinking he was someone else. I looked so depressed that daily now, everyone would ask me if I felt okay. I had to lie and say that I was just tired. I was far from okay. I could see him in my mind all the time, smiling, laughing, and making fun of me.

Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I took a hard black case from my backpack and took it into the main room with everyone else. I sat down and put my hands on the front latch, but didn’t open it.
“What’s in there?” Peter asked, motioning to the case.

“Nothing important”, I replied. I peeked a glance at Nathan. He didn’t seem to recognize the case at all. I realized that it would have to take a play on his emotions to make him remember. I started drilling him with questions about anything my “old friend” would know.
That night, Nathan had gone to bed early because he had a meeting in the morning and I was getting up to do the same. “Um, wait a moment, Lauren”, Angela said. I sat back down and waited for her to continue. “We”-gesturing to include Peter and Claire-“have noticed that Nathan hasn’t been paying very much attention to his work lately. He thinks about your questions all day. We think it would be best if-“.
I interrupted her. “Did you pay any attention at all when I told you about my ability?” I asked angrily. All three of them stared at me, obviously shocked.
“Lauren, what are you-“, Peter started.
I interrupted again. “I told you ‘animals tell me things’”. I clenched my fists. “I said ‘I know almost everything important that has happened with people that have abilities’. Do you honestly think I don’t know about this little charade?” I swept my hand around me to take everything in. Their faces got more shocked with every word.
“What are you talking about?” Angela asked.
“If you can’t figure that out, you’re a whole lot more dumb than I thought you were”, I hissed. I got up and headed to my room. I stopped in the doorway of the room. “Just because he was wrong in the past, doesn’t mean he can’t be right in the future”, I said without turning all the way around.

In the morning, the only one that looked at me the same was Nathan. It pained me to see the hurt in Peter’s eyes. We had become friends since I had been here. I spent the day out of the house to avoid any questions. Some of that time I spent asking animals to follow me home and help me with something. My memories washed over me so strongly, I felt like I was drowning in them. Nathan was home by the time I got to the house.
That night we sat together as usual.
“I read in a book somewhere that we all have a secret name we don’t even know about”, I said to Nathan.

He raised an eyebrow. ”Really?” he said.
“Yep. I think I know what yours is”. I had to keep my eyes down to avoid looking at Peter, Angela, and Claire. I could feel them staring at me.
“Humm. What is it?”.
“Gabriel”, I said barely above a whisper.
“What makes you think that?”.
I called the animals I had chosen earlier with my mind, asking them to wait outside a nearby open window.
“Because that’s who you are”.

“Excuse me?”
“You’re not Nathan Petrelli, your Gabriel Grey”.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about”.
“Please remember Gabriel! We used to argue about dumb stuff, like country music. You said that it was inappropriate most of the time. I would say that it wasn’t like that all the time, and when it was, it’s easy to ignore”. Everything was tumbling out. I was looking at “Nathan” now. Angela, Peter, and Claire were so horror struck they couldn’t move.
“When we were bored we sang random songs together and I would make fun of your terrible singing. You’d help me nurse stray animals back to health and find them homes”. I stared crying as all of my memories broke through the mental dam I had built and flooded my mind. “Please remember Gabriel, please!”.
“Nathan” looked confused and horrified at the same time. I could see Peter start to get up to stop me. I couldn’t let that happen, not now.
Huge dogs and some other animals jumped into the house through the open window. They surrounded me and “Nathan” in a protective circle.
“I can’t stand this any more!” I shouted. I flung myself at “Nathan”, hugging him and crying into his shirt. “Please Gabriel! You kept me safe! You taught me how to live, and you took me anywhere I needed to go without complaining. You were always there for me. You took me in even though you didn’t have to. We called each other brother and sister. I’ll teach you how to be like you were before and you can help people. Please remember Gabriel, please, for me”, my voice toned down to a whisper. “Nathan” had been frozen the entire time.
“Why, Lauren, why? We trusted you and you do this?! Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!” Peter shouted, trying to get through the barrier of animals.

I felt a hand touch the back of my head. “Lauren?”, “Nathan” whispered.
My head shot up instantly. “Yes! Yes Gabriel, it’s me! It’s Lauren!” I said excitedly.
“Why are you here?” he asked, his eyes dazed.
“I came here to help you!” I answered.

He looked at me and his skin started to ripple.
“No!” Angela yelled.
His features changed and shifted, his body still rippling strangely. His body reassembled in a black outfit. He was Gabriel.
“Gabriel!” I shouted happily. At the same time, I reached into my pocket. Gabriel smiled. I yanked a half- filled syringe out of my pocket and jabbed it into Gabriel’s skin. I quickly pushed down on the plunger before he could react.

“What did you do?!” he shouted as I pulled the syringe out. Obviously not being himself for a long time didn’t make him feel strange at all.
“I injected you with the same tranquilizer Peter did”, I explained. “I injected less than he did so that it wouldn’t knock you out”
“What good will that do?” Peter yelled at me.
“It makes his abilities dormant. He can only do little things”. Everyone stared at me in shock. I shrugged and wiped my face with my sleeves.
“Why would you do this?” Peter asked in a hurt voice.
I told the animals with my mind to stand down, but stay nearby. I sat down and motioned to the three that were standing to do the same. They reluctantly obliged.
“He took care of me. Now it’s my turn. I know he can’t be forgiven for everything he’s done, but I want to prove how good he really is”, I said.
“I don’t think-“, Gabriel started.
“Shut up. You talk when I say. Not that anyone would listen”, I snapped at him. I kept talking before he could respond. “No one ever bothered to talk to him. If someone had tried to help him, things might be different”
“If he is aware of who he is and his abilities, he can use them to help people. Like his lie detecting ability”.
“How do you know about that?” Gabriel demanded.
“I’ll let that slide”, I replied, “Birds are big gossips”.
“Anybody, besides you”-I shot a dark look at Gabriel-“have any questions?”.
“Do you honestly think he’ll just do what we tell him to? And what exactly are we going to do now?” Peter asked.
“To you first question, I’ll explain that in a minute. To your second, I thought you could figure that out”, I answered with a smile. I waited until I was sure they didn’t have anymore questions, then turned to Gabriel. “Your turn”, I said to him.
He glared at us and said, “This isn’t going to work. I will not help you. As soon as the tranquilizer wears off, I‘m leaving”. “It’s not like you can stop me”, he sneered.
I rolled my eyes. “Wow. You really don’t remember me that well”, I said. “Everything you said isn’t true. This is going to work, you are going to help, and you’re not going anywhere. I have a big supply of the tranquilizer, and I’ll be putting it in your system a few times every day. You are especially wrong about me not being able to stop you”.
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? How so?” he asked.
“That goes back to Peter’s first question.” I answered. “I know you moved your soft spot”.
Shock flickered over his face for a second, but quickly disappeared. “So?”.
“I also know where you moved it to”.
“What?!” Peter exclaimed.
“How could you possibly know that?” Gabriel demanded.
I laughed. “Animals can find tumors and cancer on humans, what makes you think they couldn’t find a simple soft spot?”.
Angela, Peter, and Claire were speechless. Gabriel looked shocked and horrified.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Peter shouted in outrage.
“You would have just tried to kill him”, I shouted back.
“It still would have been nice to know”.

“Why should I believe you?” Gabriel asked.

walked over to him and whispered the location of his soft spot in his ear. He jerked in surprise and I backed away sneering.

“It doesn’t matter if you know where it is. You have to be able to get to it”, he said sneering.
“One, I will carry a full syringe of the tranquilizer all the time. Two, I carry other weapons at all times. And three, as soon as you make a wrong move, my own little army will attack you”, I gestured to the group of animals, who growled to back me up.
Gabriel clenched his teeth and glared at me to suppress his emotions. The other three looked even more shocked than before. After a minute of nobody saying anything, I got up. “Well, if we’re done here, I’m going to bed”.
“Wait, what about him?” Claire asked, jabbing her thumb at Gabriel.
“Don’t worry, I thought of everything”. “And don’t you even try to touch him”, I told Peter.

He snorted and got up to go to his room.
Gabriel jerked and suddenly looked panicked. “Wh-what’s going on?! I can’t move!” he exclaimed.
I laughed. “You can’t honestly think that I would just let you be able to leave while I sleep. There was enough in that syringe to temporarily paralyze you”, I explained
“Everybody should get some sleep. The next few days will be pretty interesting”.

I went to bed but waited until I was sure everyone was asleep before I did the same.


In the morning, I dressed and went straight to the kitchen to get breakfast. Then, I went to the main room to visit Gabriel. He had moved to a window seat during the night. He was staring out the window with his arms folded across his chest.
“Hungry?” I asked as I walked over to him.
He jerked in surprise when I spoke. “How did you….” he said.
“No abilities, remember?”. He wasn’t used to not being able to hear people coming.
“Oh, right”.
“Hungry?” I repeated. He narrowed his eyes and flicked them between me and the two plates of waffles I was holding. I rolled my eyes. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it a long time ago. Plus, I would come up with something more creative than poisoning you”.
He looked between me and the plates again and sighed. “Fine”, he said.

I smiled and handed him one of the plates.
I finished quickly, and quietly walked over to the back of his seat.
“Ow!” he yelped.
“Better get used to it”, I said as I pulled a syringe out of his shoulder.

“How am I supposed to finish this if I can’t move?” he asked angrily.
I rolled my eyes again. “I’ll let you move during the day, moron”.

Gabriel looked shocked. “Oh”, was all he said. He set his plate aside when he was done and resumed looking out the window.

I reached under the couch and grabbed my black case. I sat on the couch popped the lid open. I shuffled through the contents until I found what I was looking for. I took a small dark blue case out of the black one.

“Heads up”, I said to Gabriel before tossing the little case to him. “I thought you might need them. You know, since your abilities are, um, shut off”, I explained as he examined the case.

He looked up at me with a shocked and confused expression. He ran his thumb along the seam between the top and bottom before slowly opening it. He gasped and cast a quick glance at me. He gingerly lifted out the item from the case and cradled it in one hand. With the other, he traced his finger around the two eye pieces and the bridge. “Why did you keep this?” it came out as a whisper, but I heard him anyway.

“I wanted to make sure I had them in case you ever needed them again”.

He opened the glasses and slid them on. “Thanks”, he grimaced at the word.
I merely shrugged in response. I took some albums out of the case before shutting it. Grabbing the case as I got up, I dropped the albums on Gabriel’s lap as I walked past him.
“What are these?”.

“Albums”. “I gotta’ go for a while, but at least one of the others will be here all the time. So, don’t try anything”. I left for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon like I usually did.
When I returned, Gabriel was in the same spot as before. He was analyzing a picture when I came in and plopped down on the couch.
“I remember these pictures. I still don’t understand why you still have them, though”, he said.
“I would protect those pictures with my life if I had to. My life was perfect then. There was always a good balance between the good and bad things. I don’t think I’ll ever have that again”, I said half to myself.
Gabriel looked at me for a minute, and then asked “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Don’t you know how many people I’ve killed?”.
I stared back at him and saw a glimpse of the person I once knew. “You’ve convinced yourself that your evil, the bad guy, when you know you’re not. You won’t even try to be different, but no one ever bothered to help you, nobody cared. People who have killed other people can’t be forgiven, but they can still change and be good again. You’ve helped some people, like Micah. And you have spared a few people, too”, I said. Clenching my fists, I added, “It’s all Robert Bishop’s fault. If you hadn’t killed him, I would have”.
“Why?”.

“Because of all the people he hurt. Because he hurt you”. “I’m going to make dinner”, I added before he could say anything else.
When I was done, I poked my head into the room where Peter, Angela, and Claire were meeting. “Hey, the sun’s gone down, which means dinner, so there’s some waiting for you in the dining room”, I informed them.
They looked at me like I was speaking a different language for a second.
Peter took a step forward. “What makes you think we would eat something you made? You brought him back, I wouldn’t be surprised if you tried to poison us too. Why should we trust you? Since that worked so well the last time-“, he shouted.
“That’s enough, Peter”, Angela said, putting her hand on his arm to stop him. “Thank you, dear. We’ll be there shortly”, she said to me.

I nodded and walked out the door. I hid behind the doorway and listened to their hushed conversation.
“Be a bit easier on the girl. You underestimate her. I’m sure she knows what she’s doing, she’s not stupid”, Angela whispered urgently.

Peter snorted. “Be easier on her? She betrayed us! We trusted her and she repaid us by bringing him back”, he whispered angrily. “She’s got nerve to do this in our own home with us here, I’ll give her that”, he added.
“I still think she knows what she’s doing”.

“I don’t care if she does. I don’t care if her plan works. I’ll never trust her again”.

I was fighting back tears as I listened. “I’m so sorry”, I whispered.
I took Gabriel his food when I was sure my eyes weren’t red.
Gabriel stared at the plate when I gave it to him. “Still have a good memory I see”, he said.

I had fixed him his favorite food. “Yeah”, I said absently. I chewed slowly, staring in the direction of the dining room.

“Any reason you’re not eating with them?”.

“Nope”.

I was trying to think of a way to get them to trust me again.
“They being hard on you?” Gabriel asked.
I instantly turned my head to look at him. He was staring at me, and I almost thought I could see concern in his eyes. “Doesn’t matter”, I replied, looking down at my plate.

“Is it because of what you did for me?”.

My silence gave him his answer.

“That’s a shame. They hold a grudge for a while, too”, he added. After a minute he said, “You shouldn’t have helped me”.
“You’re not a bad person”, I said instantly. He growled but said nothing.
I set my plate aside and walked over to him. He didn’t react at all when I shoved a syringe in his shoulder.
“I’m going to leave at my first opportunity”.
“Good luck with that”, I said as I took the dirty dishes to the kitchen.

I went to sleep without saying goodnight to anyone.

This time, I just tossed Gabriel a granola bar for breakfast.

“What? No waffles?” he asked humorously.

“Too tired. Didn’t sleep well”, I replied. I yawned, backing up what I’d said.

Gabriel’s eyes sparkled.
I rolled mine. “I’m still awake enough to shove a syringe in you”.
The sparkle in his eyes instantly disappeared and was replaced by a scowl.
I ignored him and headed out the door after giving him his dose. I only had a few things to do, so I was back sooner than the day before.
“Back so soon?” Gabriel asked in mock interest.

“Got nothing else to do”, I said with a shrug. “If the tranquilizer has worn off enough, you can walk around since I’m here”, I added.
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s mighty generous of you”, he said.
“You’re not in prison”.
He got up and walked to the window.
“So when are you going to start helping?” I asked.
“As soon as I stop liking to kill people”.

I stared at my hands for a minute.
“You didn’t kill me”, I whispered. Gabriel stiffened, but kept silent. “It would have so easy”, I continued. “I wouldn’t have even tried to stop you. I trusted you so much. But you didn’t even try to find me. I would know”.
“I’m not going to talk about this”, he said, walking to another window.
“Don’t walk away when I’m talking to you! I don’t care what they say!” I waved a hand at the other’s meeting room. “I don’t care what you say either! Now is not the time for your bad attitude! I will convince you that you’re a good person!”.
He turned to me with an angry expression.

“Don’t look at me like that! You think you know everything, but you don’t! I won’t give up. Now, tell me, why didn’t you explain to me why you where leaving? You gave your mother that much”.

Gabriel winced at the mention of his mother. His sadness showed clearly on his face. I knew what I’d said was below the belt, but I had to get some answers.

“It was an accident….I was so angry….” he said in a pained voice.

“I’m really am sorry, but that doesn’t answer my question”, I shouted.

“I had killed someone, and didn’t know how to explain it to you. Then I went to my mother…..I thought that if I tried to explain everything to you, the same thing would happen. I couldn’t make that mistake again. So I left you a note”, he said, shouting now.

“Oh, you mean this note?” I shouted, yanking a folded piece of paper from my pocket.

Gabriel was completely shocked, his mouth open.

“’I’m sorry, but I have to leave. I’m not coming home. Be careful, I’m so sorry.-Gabriel’. That’s it. I was tortured, alone, and confused. What was I going to do? Where was I going to go? I gave animals your description and sent them to find you. Finally, they started coming back, saying that they’d found you. Some were wrong, but I finally got to see you”. I was almost screaming now, and my words hiccupped because I was so upset. “But I knew there must have been a good reason for you to leave, so I decided not to talk to you. Besides, I didn’t know what I would say”.

Gabriel finally spoke. “Why did you keep that? Why did you look for me?” he asked quietly.

Angela, Peter, and Claire were now standing wide-eyed in the doorway.

“Because you’re the only family I have left! If you think that I’m just going to
give up on you, you’re dead wrong”, I shouted.

I stormed off to my room and threw myself onto my bed. Only a few tears slipped from my eyes, and I calmed down.

I fell asleep, and woke up a lot later. I grabbed the black case on my way to get some food. Angela had fixed dinner and, Peter, and Claire came into the main room to eat with me and Gabriel. I think they just wanted to be there in case I decided to kill Gabriel, after the argument that afternoon.

We sat in silence after dinner and I finally opened the black case, looking at pictures.

“Lauren-“, Gabriel started before I cut him off.

“Oh, go fix a watch”, I said, tossing a black pouch to him.

He caught it easily and stared at it with a shocked expression. After a minute, a smile creeped over his face and he chuckled. “Elephant-brain”, he said.

I smiled and shrugged. Of course, the others had no idea what any of that meant, but that just made it better.

I gave Gabriel his dose before I went to bed. I made sure he didn’t notice, but I gave him a smaller dosage than usual because I really didn’t want him to feel like a prisoner.


That night I had a nightmare. I was three again, listening to my parent’s screams under my bed. I came out from under my bed and found myself in Gabriel’s old watch shop. Then Gabriel was in front of me.
He looked like he had the first time I had seen him as Sylar. “I’m not a good person, I kill people. I’m a monster”, he repeated over and over again.

Then, he pointed his hand to himself and moved it slowly. A line of blood went across his head as he moved his hand. He dropped his hand and smiled crookedly.

Suddenly, he was falling on me, blood gushing from the wound on his head. I started screaming and tried to run away, but my feet wouldn’t move. Then I started shaking, which made me scream louder.

“Lauren, wake up! It’s ok! Wake up Lauren!” a voice yelled at me.
I started to realize that I was only having a nightmare, so I tried to wake up. After a second, I finally opened my eyes.

I didn’t know that I was still screaming until the voice said, “You can stop now, it’s ok”.

I stopped screaming and tried to calm down. A hand wiped my face, so I guess I had been crying, too. I looked up and, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, saw Gabriel.

“Are you ok?” he asked, shaking me again.

“Yes. S-stop sh-shaking me”, I hiccupped. Then I remembered my nightmare and said, “You’re not a monster!”.

“Shh. Go back to sleep”, he said, ignoring what I’d said.

He left once he was sure I was ok and went back to the main room.
In the morning, we had waffles and the others ate with me and Gabriel again.
“What was with all the screaming last night?” Peter finally asked.
“I had a bad dream. Sorry if I woke you up”, I answered simply. I could tell that none of them believed me, but I didn’t care.
I could tell that I was starting to get more of Gabriel and less of Sylar. I hoped that soon, the Gabriel that I used to know would be back.