Chapter Ten: The Agent

"Bye, sweetie," Claire said sarcastically. "Have a great day at work." She waved a manicured hand in farewell as she turned and walked to the elevator, leaving Gabriel standing alone in the lobby. He looked around for a minute, trying to procrastinate having to go to work. He sighed heavily and walked to the elevator, pressing B to get to the basement.

"This sucks," he muttered as the doors began to slide closed.

"Hold up!" a voice called. A young blonde man ran toward the elevator and Gabriel held the door, internally grimacing at the idea of having to share the ride down. Just another little displeasure to add to his day. The man arrived to stand breathlessly next to Gabriel.

"Hi," the blonde panted. "I'm Ricky. You can call me Rick if you want."

"Gabriel," he responded without turning his head or offering his hand to shake. The powers that be may have required him to be here working for the Agency, but nowhere in any of their damn manila envelopes did it say that he had to be nice to his coworkers. His reticence didn't seem to bother Ricky, though. It was almost as though the man was used to carrying a conversation by himself.

"I'm the new guy in the law enforcement sector. I just started a week ago," he said. "But…if you're going to the basement, you must be working here too, right? So I guess you're the new guy now, Gabriel. That's awesome; you and I can figure this job out together. I'm really excited—I haven't gotten to do much yet, but I think this week I get to be part of a team and everything."

His monologue was so bubbly and enthusiastic that Gabriel turned his head to look at his new coworker. Ricky was of average height, his blonde hair only slightly longer than a crew cut. He had the barest fuzz on his chin and didn't look any older than twenty-five. His eyes were pale blue-gray that twinkled when he noticed that Gabriel was looking at him.

"So, Gabriel," he asked with a smile, "what do you do?"

Gabriel cleared his throat, remembering that although he didn't need to be polite, he did need to make this man believe that he was here of his own volition. "A little of everything, actually. I'm an empath."

The other man's eyes widened as the elevator doors opened. "That's amazing! I've never met one before!" He continued on without prompting, "I'm mostly a defensive kinda guy." He explained what he meant when his skin sort of rippled, and suddenly a titanium man was walking next to Gabriel.

"Come on," he said as they walked down the short hallway, leading to a single door with a plaque that read only 'Enforcement'. "I'll introduce you."

So Gabriel was ushered into the main office. It was where all the deskwork was done; hallways branched off into the armory, an enormous room used for target practice and the like, and a few other little rooms. It was well-organized and metallic; no efforts were made to beautify the place or hide its purpose.

"Hi boys," Ricky announced at large. "This is Gabriel. He's new."

One man in particular hurried to meet him. "Gabriel Gray, my God. What are you doing here?"

Gabriel stared at the man's face, trying to put a name to the identity. "Hank?"

Hank reached forward and began pumping Gabriel's hand in earnest. "Yeah, they put me in charge about a year and a half ago. Good to see you. You back to work now?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes—had nobody warned these guys?—Gabriel replied, "Yes. I decided it was probably for the best. My skills can be put to good use here."

Hank had been working for enforcement since the establishment of the Agency, and his smile dimmed at the reference to Gabriel's past use and his unique skills. He bolstered it quickly though, and began introducing him to everyone else.

Some things didn't change—the force was still made up of a few idealistic rookies, some men who treated it like just another job, one or two who looked like they were probably mercenaries at one time or another, and the rest who used to belong to a regular police service, the military, or something similar; it was an all-around boys' club. Most of them were specials, but there were one or two who were normal people that had been individually selected and trained to handle the worst-case scenarios. Not that it would matter anymore—now that Gabriel was back, everyone else on the force was practically unnecessary, at least for the bigger problems.

Hank ran a hand over his balding head as he showed Gabriel into his office and shut the door behind him. "Gabe, have a seat."

Gabriel's new boss sat on the other side of the desk and frowned. "I'm pleased as punch to have you back with us—lemme just say that right now. But I can't rightly understand why you're here. You didn't make it a secret how much you hated this job, and yet here you are, supposedly ready and willing to get back to it. You're a smart man; you understand why this is giving me pause." He leaned forward, staring hard at Gabriel, who looked mildly back. Hank was a likable fellow, but Gabriel wasn't new to this game.

"Don't even think about it, Hank," he said evenly. "You can't crack into my brain and you'll only hurt yourself if you try."

Far from being put out, Hank laughed. "Should have known better, huh? I don't know why the rest of us are still here—you can handle all this on your own."

"Ah, but then I wouldn't get to converse with you, Hank," Gabriel returned dryly. Hank laughed again and waved Gabriel out of the office, yelling for Terrance to help him get all his gear together. Again, not that Gabriel really needed gear, but the uniformity looked good.

Gear organized, coworkers met, and boss's questions avoided, Gabriel sat at his desk, a small headache building right between his eyes. He spent the next few hours reading over case files and upcoming missions that he had been assigned. As before, it looked like he would be working alone a lot of the time. He didn't need a team, and it left fewer witnesses to his nastier work.

His desk phone rang. "Law enforcement, Agent Gray speaking," he answered automatically.

"I take it things are going well, then," Claire said.

Gabriel answered calmly, though the idea of things 'going well' was laughable in the extreme. If they were watching the house, it would be foolish for them to think that their interdepartmental phone calls weren't also bugged. "Yes, it's been a good day so far. I'm getting settled in and refamiliarized."

"Awesome. I was just calling to check in with you. Making sure everything's okay."

He grit his teeth in irritation. "I'm an adult. I think I can manage my first day at work just fine on my own."

"You know what they said," she responded with an edge in her voice.

"Did you call your uncle yet?" he asked to change the subject. "His birthday's tomorrow and you know he'd love to hear from you." Of course Peter's birthday wasn't for months, but the comment was so innocuous that Gabriel doubted anyone would check on the fact.

"I'll do it soon," Claire replied easily. "See you after work."

Gabriel hung up the phone, feeling a renewed sense of impotence. He had promised never to come back to this place, and here he was sitting at a desk, reading files as though he had never quit in the first place. His son was missing and there was nothing he could do about it. Gabriel didn't handle powerlessness very well.

"Hey, man," Ricky said, coming to stand next to Gabriel's desk. "You didn't tell me you used to work here. You just let me keep on talking like I could help you out. I feel like a real goof." He held out his hand. "No hard feelings?"

Gabriel shook the younger man's hand. "Nope."

"Good!" Ricky exclaimed, pulling Gabriel to his feet. "Hank said we should all get the chance to see what you can do, so we know our assets out in the field. Come on."

Gabriel was led reluctantly to the practice room, where some of the men had already gathered. They stood in small groups, not ready to fully invite the newcomer in. Gabriel didn't have a problem with that.

"Got anything I can use as an object lesson?" he asked Ricky. The blonde nodded, unfastening his watch from his wrist and handing it over. Gabriel turned it in his hands, assessing it out of habit. It was a large, ugly thing that he probably bought at Wal-Mart for fifteen bucks.

"This is great. It's going to get pretty beat up, but I can get you a better one," he promised. Ricky shrugged it off, excitement growing on his features as he waited to see what this quiet and vaguely threatening man could do. Hank shushed the talkers, and everybody fell quiet as Gabriel stepped forward, his body angled so that they could see what he was doing, but weren't in the line of fire.

Gabriel started by letting his hand fall, leaving the watch suspended in the air in front of him. He made it move around them before bringing it back in front of him. Then he lifted a hand and fried it with a long burst of electricity, moving to fire after that. Judging by the men's noisy reactions behind him, he figured that was probably enough to get them off his back for now. All his other gifts…well, they didn't need to know about those just yet. He could trust Hank not to let anything else slip before he was ready for them to know more.

He turned, looking each man in the eye, letting them know that he was aware of their judgment and their new awe. His little demonstration was enough to keep them just a little bit afraid of him. Gabriel decided that a touch of fear would have to be sufficient to brighten his day.

A/N: Thanks for all of your reviews. They seriously brighten our days.

-Mel and Chuck