New Orleans, LA

Nana Dawson's House

Rule One: "Sometimes doing what's right isn't the easiest option, but if it needs doing, then stick to your guns."

It takes a while to convince them, but eventually Nana and Monica agree with Micah's plan. When they have a family meeting in the living room to talk about what to do, he comes prepared with a whole list of reasons that he wrote out by hand explaining why Gabe needs help, and why they should be the ones to give it to him. 'Mom did bad things when Jessica took over' and 'Dad went to prison for something he didn't do' are the first to be written down; they're not exactly relevant to Gabe's situation, but they're what comes to mind. The next reasons he puts down are all various ways to say 'We're Rebel and we help people like us'. He gets a good half page out of that. When he runs out of different ways to phrase it, he gives in and adds 'He saved my life when he was still a bad guy'.

It turns out that the problem that his cousin and great-aunt have with Gabe isn't that he used to kill people (though he's pretty sure it would be a bigger problem for them if they knew more about all the things he did when he was Sylar), it's that Nathan Petrelli is a big part of who he is now. There's no love lost between his family and the senator who turned them and everyone like them into fugitives. Monica believes that they did more than enough for him when he showed up back at the beginning of May looking for help from someone he barely knew. Nana is a little more generous, and says that while creating a fake background for Gabe to help him start fresh is a good, if illegal, idea, anything more is unnecessary. Micah is secretly relieved that he doesn't have to use his list of reasons. He doesn't think that the one about being rescued by a serial killer would go over very well.

He has a more solid argument against their anti-Petrelli stance. The Rebellion needs help if they want to stay a step ahead of the government. It was hard enough when they were trying to keep other specials from being captured, and back then the goal of Building 26 was to detain, not kill. Since Homeland Security disbanded the organization, the Rebellion has been scrambling to keep track of the other, much more private government efforts to deal with the specials. And the DHS doesn't have any problem with killing instead of capturing now that they can do it without public scrutiny. They need a better cover, better equipment, and a better home base. Micah knows that Gabe can provide all that.

It's a sign of how much things have changed over the past year when neither Nana nor Monica try to pull the older and wiser card on him. It's not that they consider him an adult like they are, but when he talks to them as the leader of the Rebellion and not as Nana's twelve year old ward, they listen. He suspects sometimes that they try to think of him as two different people, just to make it less weird when they're telling him to do his homework less than an hour after he's given Monica an update and a new assignment. So when he sits down with them as Rebel and outlines their situation, and tells them how stretched thin the group is, and explains how badly they need both money and a secure place for headquarters, they don't disagree.

Nana hovers a lot the last day he's in New Orleans, forcing second helpings on him at meals and grabbing him into tight hugs when he's not expecting it, and Monica asks him if he's really okay with going through with his plan so many times that even Damon notices that something strange is going on. His cousin helps carry out the boxes of Gabe's books and kitchenware to the back of the rental truck without any prompting from Nana and shoots curious glances at Micah all day long. Micah puts his suitcase and bedding in the space behind the seats in the cab and waits on the porch with Monica for West to show up with Gabe.

They arrive right after sunset. West comes in for a vertical landing and drops Gabe into Nana's flowerbed. He heads back up into the air immediately, not stopping to do more than give Micah a joking salute. Micah returns the gesture gratefully and gets off the porch to get a better look at his new guardian. It's kind of strange to see the way he looks now – Gabe looks a little like Nathan Petrelli and a little like Gabriel Gray, and a lot more comfortable in his own skin than when he still thought of himself as one or the other.

"Ready to go?" Gabe asks him quietly.

Micah nods. "Monica has the keys," he says, and the truck's engine starts up with a rumble.

They watch as Monica rolls down the driver's window. "I'll do the driving," she tells them in an uncompromising voice.

After a second's hesitation, Gabe shrugs and walks around to the passenger door. "It'll be nice to have another pair of hands for the move," he says at her suspicious look.

They roll through the city with the radio on low. Micah falls asleep to the faint crooning of Etta James somewhere along I-59 North and doesn't wake up until they pull into the motel parking lot to stop for the night.

**

Baltimore, MD

Rebel Base

Rule Two: "Unless a lie is absolutely necessary, do your best to tell the truth."

Gabe doesn't have any trouble smooth talking Micah's way into a late acceptance to a local private school, though Micah thinks it has as much to do with the charitable donation Gabe makes as it does with Micah's grades. He sits on one of the boxes of books and listens in amusement to Gabe's side of the conversation. By the time Gabe gets off the phone with the dean, Micah is certain his reputation has been cemented at his new school for good: the poor, brilliant orphan, taken in by his mother's wealthy cousin. Micah doesn't know exactly where all of Gabe's money comes from, but he can tell from the stiff shrug that Gabe gives him when he asks that it's not something he's comfortable talking about.

The family connection is the only lie they tell for Micah's cover story. Gabe's is more complicated. Micah has to start from scratch for his, with a new birth certificate, Social Security number, medical records, and academic transcript. In the end he borrows heavily from both Gabriel Gray's and Nathan Petrelli's real records. He's glad he does because when Gabe goes over his new medical history, his eyes go soft and he rubs the scar on his chin with a small smile.

The first night in their new home, Monica helps Gabe sort his books by subject while Micah pretends to be absorbed in programming his new laptop. They sit on the floor in front of the bookcases surrounded by stacks of books and empty boxes. Monica has finally stopped looking at Gabe in distrust, and in return he's started to open up to her – he hasn't shared much about his personal life, but they laugh and joke together, and seem to get along. They reach the last box, and the smile falls off Gabe's face as he pulls open the top. Micah watches from behind the screen of his laptop as Gabe reaches inside with careful hands and pulls out a framed photograph.

"Is that your family?" Monica asks gently.

Gabe runs his fingers across the faces in the picture. "My boys," he tells her. "Simon and Monty. Simon's the older one." He looks almost broken for a moment, and he clears his throat gruffly. "I mean, they're Nathan's kids."

He makes like he's going to set the picture aside. Monica stops him with a hand on his wrist. "This must be hard for you, too," she says sympathetically.

"It's not the end of the world," he says. "Believe me, I'd rather be me as I am now than as I was before you and Micah helped me. I was lost when I thought I was Nathan, and before that, I was the worst kind of person."

"I hear a 'but' in there somewhere," Monica says, and Gabe smiles a little.

"But it is difficult. I figure it's just going to take time to get used to it, but sometimes my memories conflict over the strangest things. I remember going to Grover Cleveland High School in Queens, for example, but I also remember going to Trinity School in Manhattan." He grips the picture frame tighter. "I know I'm twenty nine, but I also know I have an eighteen year old daughter."

"I'm sorry," Monica offers.

"Why?" he asks, surprised. "None of this is your fault."

"I know," she says, and takes his free hand in hers. "But sometimes it helps to hear that someone cares."

Micah's laptop gives him a polite mental nudge, and he turns his attention back to his project. It's a very nice machine. It has both the zippy processing speed and agreeable personality that his old computer lacked. It wasn't his old computer's fault, really – it just grumbled when Micah wanted it to do something that its processors couldn't keep up with. He silently praises his laptop's excellent hard drive, and it gives him the computer equivalent of a blush.

When he looks up again, Gabe is smiling, and Monica is still holding his hand.

**

Rule Three: "Never forget the meaning of family. Your loved ones are the most important people you'll ever know."

Peter Petrelli shows up at the apartment the day after Monica heads back to New Orleans. Micah is sitting cross-legged on the living room floor in front of his laptop poring through confidential emails from the Department of Homeland Security, listening to the machine's happy whirr as it very helpfully pre-sorts the emails into categories for him. Gabe is hunched over in the armchair with a pad of drafting paper balanced on his knees and a straight ruler in his right hand while he blocks out a design. The knock at the door is unexpected, and Gabe swears when his hands jerk at the sound. He sets the pad aside and goes to the door with an irritated grumble.

Gabe barely has the door open when Peter pushes his way inside furiously. Micah lifts his laptop from the floor in front of him and sets it on his lap, just in case Peter missteps and breaks his computer while he's stomping around.

"You weren't supposed to come see me so soon," Gabe says.

Peter glares at him. "And you were just going to disappear and let me think that all those memories you have of being my brother didn't mean anything more to you than watching someone else's home movies."

"No," Gabe protests. "Not at all. I wanted…I wanted to give you time." He catches Peter by the elbow and looks relieved when he isn't shaken off. "I wanted you to have some time to get used to me not – well, not being completely me anymore."

"What am I to you?" Peter demands.

"You're my brother," Gabe says, "and I love you."

"So why the hell would you think I need time away from you?" Peter asks.

"Pete, look at me," Gabe says bitterly. "I have this face for a reason. I'm not enough of either Nathan Petrelli or Gabriel Gray to live either of their lives."

"You're still my brother, no matter what you look like or call yourself," Peter tells him. He touches Gabe's chin and smiles crookedly. "You kept the scar."

"I wanted to keep the reminder of the day my little brother decided I was his hero," Gabe says, and his smile is identical to Peter's.

Peter pulls him into a tight hug that, to Micah, seems to last forever. He never has a day where he doesn't miss his parents, but seeing Gabe and Peter hug makes Micah feel like he only lost them yesterday, and he wishes it were possible for him to be able to throw his arms around them like Peter's doing with Gabe.

When they break apart they both have suspiciously shiny eyes. "Remind me to thank Parkman," Gabe says with a shaky laugh.

"I know why I'm grateful, but why are you?" Peter asks.

"Because I'm still here," Gabe says. He looks around and seems startled to see that Micah is still in the room. "Pete," he says, "You remember Micah Sanders, right?"

Peter smiles. "From Kirby Plaza, right. Sorry we didn't meet under better circumstances."

"Me, too," Micah says. "I'm glad you didn't die."

"What are you up to?" Peter asks, aiming a curious look at Micah's laptop.

Micah can't help the huge grin that breaks across his face – he might be doing this for a serious reason, but his power will never stop being incredibly cool. "I'm hacking the Department of Homeland Security," he tells Peter. "Do you want to see?"

"Pete, meet the most wanted criminal on the DHS domestic terror watch list," Gabe says. He smirks at Peter's dumbfounded expression. "Welcome to Rebel Base."

**

Rule Four: "No violence in the apartment. If you can't manage that, keep it clean. If you can't do that either, put down a tarp first."

It isn't often that they have to act as a stop on the railroad, but sometimes they're the most conveniently located Rebellion operatives in the area. When they get word that there's a special close by in danger of being discovered by the government, Gabe heads out to pick them up before DHS gets there first. Micah keeps a checklist handy and goes over it while he waits for Gabe's return.

Is the next stop lined up? Check. Does the camera have fresh batteries? Check. Has the sofa been folded out into a bed? Check. Has the first aid kid been restocked in case their guest is injured? Check.

The specials that Micah and Gabe are directly involved in helping are ones who went underground after being freed from Building 26. Most of them were too traumatized after being held captive to even make it out of the Maryland-Virginia-Delaware area. They're the ones who need the most help, and they're usually the ones who are too scared to help themselves until it's too late.

Micah always makes sure to have everything their guest needs to feel safe and comfortable ready for when Gabe walks through the door. If he's bringing home a kid, Micah has hot chocolate and board games ready. If he brings home an adult, it's chamomile tea and a clean change of clothes. Everyone gets a shower and a hot meal, and then Micah and Gabe sit them down and tell them who will come to take them where in the morning.

And Gabe will stay up all night to make sure they don't have nightmares, because he's made it his personal mission to help everyone that was hurt by Building 26. He doesn't talk about why he does it, but Micah thinks it has to do with the fact that both of the people he once was used to have something to do with the agency. Micah stays up late too, but Gabe always makes him go to bed before midnight.

"You're too young to develop insomnia," Gabe always says at around eleven thirty at night. "You can do that when you're an adult and ought to know better." Sometimes Micah gets up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water, and the light will still be on in the kitchen. He feels bad for Gabe on the nights they have guests. It's not right that one person should have two lifetimes worth of guilt.

The first guest they have is a girl Micah's age with arms like twigs. She clutches the mug of hot chocolate close to her chest and doesn't say a word the whole time she's there. The next is a man in his thirties who reads Gabe's entire library through two black eyes. The third one is a teenage boy with reddish brown hair who smirks and talks like nothing in the world scares him. He has such a bad nightmare that he accidentally kills Gabe when Gabe tries to wake him. The panicked shouting wakes Micah up, but it's the smell of microwaved meat that makes it impossible for him to go back to sleep.

The boy is shaken and apologetic the next morning, and even though Gabe waves it off like it happens every day, Micah gets the feeling from the way Gabe doesn't meet the boy's eyes that one of the people he used to be might have known the boy from before. It takes Gabe hours to relax after the boy's been safely delivered into another operative's hands and taken on his way to the next stop.

Micah and Gabe tell their guests to keep their names to themselves, just in case DHS wises up and recruits a telepath – or more likely, captures a telepath and forces him or her to work for the agency. The only names that they need to know are the names on the false driver's licenses, credit cards, and birth certificates that they make up for their guests: Carrie Lewis, Tom Hill, John Bayer.

Every time one of them leaves, Micah crosses his fingers and hopes that the next time they meet, it will be safe to know their names.

**

Rule Five: "Don't let the world pass you by because you're too busy saving it. Even the leader of the Rebellion needs to be a kid once in a while."

Micah is the reigning mahjong champion of the Sunday night game nights that he and Gabe have with Peter. No one comes close to beating Gabe at Risk, and Peter has a stranglehold on the Scrabble high score.

On the last night before classes start, he and Gabe and Peter are all crowded around the kitchen table playing Scrabble. Peter lays down the tiles to finish the word 'polycystic' for a triple word score, and Gabe groans and tosses a tile at him.

"What do you do, eat a dictionary before you come down to visit us?" he asks Peter in amusement.

Peter laughs. "Thesaurus, actually," he says. "I tried a dictionary once, but I got a bunch of proper nouns stuck between my back teeth." He gives Gabe a toothy smile. "You're just sore because I have a bigger vocabulary."

"Cut out all the stuff you learned in nursing school and you've got nothing on me," Gabe tells him.

"Just keep telling yourself that," Pete says. "I mean, it's not like you could have chosen something better than 'animals' three turns ago."

"Or 'dirty' on the first round," Micah supplies. "Aren't you supposed to be really smart?"

"What is this, pick on Gabe night?" Gabe jokes. He glances at the clock. "Alright, enough with the comedy routine. It's time for bed, Micah."

Micah wants to ask to stay up for at least a few more rounds of Scrabble, but Gabe is right; it is pretty late, and he doesn't want to be too tired to pay attention in school tomorrow. He nods instead and says goodnight to Peter before going to get ready for bed. He can hear them talking in low voices as he changes into his pajamas and brushes his teeth, and he knows that Peter's probably going to end up staying over again. He usually does when he and Gabe work on their project at night.

When he crawls into bed, Gabe comes to turn off the lights. Sometimes Micah thinks that Gabe does that every night instead of tucking him in because he misses Simon and Monty. "Goodnight, kiddo," Gabe tells him softly from the doorway. "Sleep well."

"'Night, Gabe," Micah replies from beneath his blankets. "You too."

He lies in bed in the dark listening to the sounds of his guardian and Peter brainstorming together in the kitchen, and he thinks to himself that it may not feel like home yet, but he and Gabe are getting there, one day at a time.