A/N: Howdy to lapiduslives and OneofJennifer! Now we're cooking with gas!

Chapter 14- Back in Black

Age:27

Deep inside he always knew that it was a near certain statistical probability that Jenna would have an ability. After all, he had scientific proof that she carried the allele that gave her the propensity to be extraordinary even though probability didn't prelude possibility. Like so many other human characteristics, environmental conditions can inhibit or accelerate the expression of any given trait and it was possible that she would never meet just the right circumstances to fully develop anything.

But as he listened to her nearly hyperventilate on the phone, he found himself thinking that it was largely his fault for having so many additions to his DNA. Looking back, he should have been thankful that she was as normal and healthy as she was given the sheer number of mutations he carried. Her fate was nearly sealed at conception because of him, but it was almost equally Peter's fault because of his meddling by sending Stephanie his way to begin with and it was his doing that put Jenna where she was. He helped get her into this mess and he was going to help her out of it, although deep down he knew that between them he was going to do most of the heavy lifting. It only seemed right, he supposed, he was her biological father whereas Peter had merely been her close surrogate.

About midway through her junior year, Jenna finally wised up and realized that while theatre may have been her passion, it didn't offer her much of a future. In need of an actual major for her degree, Peter suggested she use her natural propensity for friendliness and efficiency for a career in medicine. He was predictably thinking of nursing while Gabriel was gunning for doctor, but Jenna stumped them both and settled on social work. Much like acting, Gabriel frowned thinking that no matter how noble or enjoyable her pursuit, it doomed her to a life of thankless poverty. Peter was a bit more encouraging, seeing the potential good that she could do for the downtrodden of the city as if the Boy Scout needed a sidekick. Even though such a late major switch added yet another year to her tenure and two more years of graduate school, Gabriel could be proud to say that his daughter held an advanced degree even if it didn't have the prestige of engineering or medicine.

It was a long process, but when she would stop by his house for dinner and breathlessly tell him of how she saved some kid in Harlem from his abusive parents, or found a job for an ex-drug addict, he relented because he knew how important it was for him to be proud of her. It was all he ever wanted from his own mother. He needed to know that she was fine with him fixing watches instead of being the president of the United States, and he remembered the anguish that came from never being accepted as he was- either as a watchmaker or a special. He was determined to never make Jenna feel as though she always had to be something more or somehow wasn't good enough, so if smiling and nodding as she explained the intricacies and shortcomings of the public welfare system made her feel better about herself and her chosen career, so be it.

She moved to Brooklyn and took a job with the city as a social worker after doing a short internship with Damian. Nathan was still in office, but he didn't have the stamina or patience to keep up with young and energetic college kids with heads full of ideas on how they were going to singlehandedly change the country. He wasn't on the floor casting votes as often as he once did, and in his estimation, didn't feel as though he had much to teach anyone although there was more than just a subtle hint of sarcasm in his voice when Gabriel spoke to him about it. Damian, on the other hand, was in his late 40's and still very much a player on the beltway in Washington. He was well connected and respected, but more importantly willing to give Jenna a behind the scenes look at how public policy was really made. Ever the idealist, he took his job as a lobbyist for specials seriously and he doggedly pursued it to great effect. By the end of her tenure, Jenna was exhausted but enlightened.

She loved her job even though the hours were long and he didn't see as much of her as he would have liked. He understood how important it was for her to make a good impression early in her career to advance, but that wasn't her prime motivation. Much to Peter's delight, she was moved to save the city one sad case at a time. There was just too much suffering in her estimation and she spent all her time and energy fighting for the underdog. Gabriel couldn't say he wasn't just a teeny bit proud that he raised such a contentious young woman even if at times he had to threaten to go to her office and forcibly drag her away from her desk just as he did when she didn't want to leave a toy store as a child. But as he found out, he could take the girl from the job but he couldn't make her stop doing it.

When she wasn't at her desk calling everyone she knew in the city looking for a job placement or pro bono legal assurance for a client, she spent at least part of her weekends volunteering her time in homeless shelters. Gabriel was never entirely comfortable with the arrangement not because of who she offered her skills to for free, but because of where the shelters tended to be: poverty level, high crime, desolate blocks of the city where those without could be ignored en masse so as not to bring down the property values of the wealthy Park Avenue set. Every time he expressed his concerns, either she or Peter would pepper him with the usual talking points: the homeless are people too who have bad luck or no marketable skills. They didn't deserve to be treated poorly, some have no access to mental health or substance abuse treatment yada yada. Gabriel never once stated otherwise, but he knew from experience that people like him- killers, rapists, and thieves, moved among them because there was little chance of being caught. It wasn't the raving, unmedicated schizophrenic that worried him, it was the one sane criminal who picked Jenna out as a well to do target that left him feeling uneasy. As he listened to her gasp and choke with fear on the other end of the phone, he wanted to sigh and say 'I told you so,' but things were bad enough as it was. She didn't need him to make it worse, in fact, she reached out for him to help her and he was running as fast as he could go toward her. It was perhaps 3 miles, but he could make it in about 12 minutes if he sprinted because his regeneration would keep him from dropping dead of a heart attack.

"Dad?" She hiccupped between hysterical sobs. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, baby. I'm still here." He replied in a calm, soothing tone. He understood her panic, but he had to get her to calm down if he was going to successfully resolve the situation. "Are you sure he's dead?" It was something he never imagined himself asking his daughter, but he had to start with the basics.

"Yeah!" She cried frantically. "I'm pretty sure you can't live without a head!" He suppressed a frown while she went on, sounding as if she were about to vomit. "God, there's so much blood…"

"Jenna, listen to me." He instructed in a firm voice in an effort to keep her from falling apart entirely. He meant to kill Brian Davis and the resulting guilt was nearly overwhelming. He couldn't imagine what accidently taking someone's life felt like. "Did anyone see you?"

She seemed to become more aware of her surroundings as she sniffled and gave a timid, "No. I…I don't think so. He just attacked me and I…I don't really know what happened. I turned and…"

"That's not important now." He hastily cut her off as his lungs screamed for air and he dodged unsuspecting pedestrians like he was playing a game of high speed Twister. "What's important is time. You need to get out of there before someone sees you with the body. Do you have any blood on you?"

"What?" She asked in a daze.

"Are your clothes bloody? If they are, get rid of them." He demanded as he hurdled a large dog on a leash. The owner yelled something at him, no doubt obscene, but he didn't care enough to look back. "I'm almost there, baby. Keep calm, walk away if you can, or find a safe place to hide, ok?"

"O…ok." She stammered as shock began to set in. He hung up the phone and pushed himself harder. His heart threatened to explode in his chest from exertion and his oxygen starved body ached and his vision went fuzzy around the edges, but he didn't think of slowing down one bit. He never ran so hard in his life for anything, but his child needed him and he regretted never taking speed or straight up teleportation from any of his victims. He could have called Peter or perhaps even Hiro, but both had a tendency to get all wrapped up in the morally right thing to do and he didn't have time for that. The situation called for swift, decisive action and he was just the man for the job. Who better to call to handle a murder scene than your serial killer father?

He pulled up short at the darkened corner between abandoned lots where Jenna said she was, sucking huge amounts of air into his deprived lungs desperately as he looked around for her. Perhaps four blocks back, the pale light of the sign for the St. Regent's homeless shelter bathed the filthy street and the few lonely souls who lingered outside in a sickly glow. Even though it was dark and the street was abandoned and littered with trash and broken bottles, it would have been the quickest route back to the subway and it was the only earthly reason he could imagine Jenna passing that way. The back to back empty lots afforded little privacy, hardly the ideal place to deal with a decapitated body. Nonetheless, Gabriel waded through the ankle deep remnants of modern life that reeked of decomposition and human waste to approach what was left of the man that attacked his daughter so he could better assess the situation and determine the best way to contain it.

Jenna was exaggerating a bit when she told him he had lost his head, but the jagged, imprecise gash that left the tissues of his neck exposed would have likely been fatal in seconds. The scruffy, unkempt man with torn and mismatched clothing lay sprawled on his back with his arms extended as though he were making an angel out of his bed of refuse, but it didn't move Gabriel in the slightest. All he felt was a mild sense of irony that the man would die in such circumstances and that by the looks of it, Jenna had done it with hasty, unfocused telekinesis. It was the power with which Sampson killed his mother, it was the way he personally dispatched his victims, and it was the way Jenna defended herself without knowing she could. In some ways he was almost thankful that she didn't have some exotic power that he himself didn't possess. At least with something so familiar, his hunger wasn't even remotely interested in her because it would do nothing to further his own evolution. He shuddered to think of how it might have been otherwise because continued control and suppression would not be an option. He reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone and sent an urgent text message. If he was going to keep Jenna safe, he needed help.

"Dad?" Her tiny voice drifted from across the street where she squatted behind a pile of old tires.

He took one last look at the body, the victim's eyes open wide as though he suddenly understood the meaning of life even as he lost his, and slowly turned to levitate himself out of the morass. He felt tainted as it was without rotting food, used needles, and dirty condoms clinging to the soles of his shoes. He hadn't used his abilities so openly or extensively for almost 30 years, but he found it just as easy as he always did after his body made slight adjustments to the mechanics of fine control. It was a kinesthetic sense that had long lie dormant, and to use his gifts once more felt liberating and familiar smirk twisted his lips.

Aside from holding her thrown history book in midair, Jenna had never watched her father use any of his many alleged abilities, so to watch him linger just above the ground like a grim reaper dressed in black gave her pause. But it was more than that. There was a certain predatory hardness to his eyes that made him seem cold and almost otherworldly and a nearly imperceptible change in his body posture that spoke of absolute power and possession. It was as if he were a coiled snake ready to strike: calm, patient, and deadly. Even though her mind told her she had nothing to fear, her body screamed at her to run. For one brief moment, she could see the man her history book talked about: the cruel, all powerful, merciless terrorist that took lives by the dozen and destroyed facilities at will. The man before her was not the man she grew up with, that was for certain. Her father was a gentle but firm person who patiently corrected her and strived to always love and support her even if he didn't entirely understand her latest whim. The only things he was a terror to were germs and dust, but the person that held out his hand to her was someone else entirely and she shrank back slightly until whatever it was that possessed him released its grip and his eyes softened into something more human and recognizable again.

At first he wasn't entirely sure why his daughter was cringing away from him when he risked an aneurysm and several potential lawsuits for assault as he nearly shoved people out of the way on his mad dash to get to her, but enough of the hunger stirred within him to remind him of what he must have looked like to her. He lowered his hand along with his eyes while he cleared his throat. He had always been so careful to keep Sylar under tight control so she would never have to see him, but the circumstances of murder and a body brought it out of him all too easily. He didn't want to frighten her, but he knew that his best chance lie in giving into his most basic instincts with the hope that she could someday forgive him. Still looking to the side so as not to stare directly at her, he stated in a low voice, "If you want to get out of this, you have to do exactly as I say and don't ask questions. Do you trust me?"

"Get out of it?" She asked in disbelief. "Dad, I killed someone! We have to wait for the cops…"

Gabriel looked sharply at her and his eyes practically narrowed to slits. "You called the police?" She took a step back, unsure of how to respond. He thrust his phone at her at the sound of approaching sirens. His only thought was to save her at any cost, even if it meant giving himself up and potentially finding himself back in the system that he fought so hard to get out of. "Take this and hide. I mean it, Jenna. We don't have time to argue. Peter will find you and when he does, tell him to take you someplace safe." When she seemed frozen with fear and unable to reach out to him, he gently approached her and placed the phone in her coat pocket. He gave her a sad smile as he brushed the hair away from her forehead to place a soft kiss on the faint scar that stood as his reminder that he'd failed her and whispered, "Run and don't look back. You have to trust me, baby. Go."

She stumbled away with a few hesitant steps before she found the courage to break into a run just as the lights of the police cars became visible. She swerved behind a parked car and squatted, disobeying her father's directive by looking back. She didn't know what he meant by Peter was going to find her, but she didn't have to wait long. He looked a little confused at first when he just popped out of nowhere making her cover her mouth to stifle a frightened squeak, but he took stock of the situation and thought it best to take cover with her. "What's going on?" He asked with a worried look while he watched swarms of police flood the street with guns drawn, shouting chaotically for a single, tall man to simultaneously put his hands up, get on the ground, put his hands behind his head, walk backwards slowly, kneel, and put his hands behind his back- leaving some room for doubt as to exactly what position they wanted him to be in. His heart sank when he realized that it was Gabriel. Even in the flashing lights and at such a distance he would have known that silhouette anywhere. His first thought was that he had finally given into his urges, but he would never have let Jenna witness it in a million years if he did.

Jenna watched the scene with a lump in her throat. They were arresting the wrong person. "I killed someone." She choked out faintly.

"You what?" He asked sadly. "Jenna, I can't imagine you would do something like that unprovoked. What happened?" He tried to pull her attention away from the sight of her father being kicked to the ground and handcuffed like he were a fox surrounded by a pack of hunting dogs. He knew it was going to get a lot worse for him if they found out who he really was, but he understood why he would take such a serious risk. It was just what a loyal father would do for his child and Gabriel was no different no matter how special or flawed he thought he was.

"This man," she quietly recited, her brown eyes brimming with fresh tears, "he asked me for some money after I left the shelter. I didn't have any, but he kept following me. He…" she stopped to choke back the swelling tide of fear and remorse at the memory, "he grabbed me by the arm and tried to kiss me. He said if I didn't have any money, I could give him something else. I don't know why, but it reminded me…" she couldn't make herself put words to what happened to her on prom night, or at least as much as she could remember of it. "And I didn't want to be a victim again. Something inside of me just…I don't know. I turned to push him off me and he just went flying but I swear I didn't touch him. I just stood there trying to figure out what happened and he got up. He was really angry and he called me a dirty freak. He saw my necklace," she absentmindedly reached up to her throat to roll the small diamond in her fingers, "and he lunged at me. I raised my hand to stop him and as I did, his neck just…" She went silent as her mind replayed the sudden spray of crimson that poured from his neck and the shocked look on his face. "And he died, right there. I didn't know what to do, so I called Dad."

Peter glanced back at the sea of flashing lights and squinted when he realized what he had been called so urgently for. Gabriel was probably going to tell them he did it just to keep Jenna off the radar and she needed an exit. He returned his attention to Jenna and gave her a supportive hug. "I know you feel scared and sad, but I can help you. I can show you how to use your ability, how to control it so nothing like this ever happens again." He never came close to killing anyone but himself when he discovered he had an ability, and he could all but feel her overwhelming confusion and remorse. "But we have to get you out of here before someone finds us."

"We can't leave him." She protested, gesturing vaguely to the flotilla of cop cars. "He didn't do anything. It was me."

"He knows that." He assured her. "And I know that. But believe me, Jenna, you don't have any idea of what you would be in for if you turned yourself in. It was tragic, but it was an accident. You have the right to defend yourself and that's what you did. He knows what he's doing and you have to trust him and me, ok? Would either of us do anything to hurt you?"

"No." She admitted miserably. "But we have to do something." If accidently taking another person's life wasn't bad enough, knowing her father was going to be charged with it was even worse. If they found out Sylar wasn't really dead, it would just make the deception all that more believable. She felt so guilty on all fronts when all she wanted to do was run to the back of the cop car that held her father, rip open the door and hug him with everything she had and tell him she loved him. She wasn't entirely naive, she heard stories about what when on in facilities that housed specials.

"And we will." He vowed with utter conviction. "We can help him by leaving. I can call some people and so can you to try and get him out of this." She looked to him confused, but hopeful. "The first person we need to call is your former boss, Damian. He probably has the most swing of anyone in the system right now, but it won't hurt to call Claire to see what she can do too. Can you do that?" He knew that giving her a task, an important one even, would be the key to gaining her cooperation. He had to get her out before all of Gabriel's efforts were in vain. "Then let's get going." He smiled as he whisked them far away from the scene of the crime.