Monday, May 5, 4:10 P.M.

Paxton, Nebraska

The trip had been full of the potential to be difficult, but the reality of it had shocked Lucas tremendously.

It had been perfect.

Two days of driving, of talking about random meaningless things. Nothing of any importance had come up, and Roy obviously had no clue who Lucas was. They had stopped for food now and then, which Roy had insisted on paying for. A week earlier that would have horrified Lucas, but with less than fifty dollars to his name, he found it very difficult to say anything.

He had become so used to everything going wrong at all turns that he didn't know what to do when everything went well.

The trip to Nebraska was blissful and quiet, and he couldn't help but wish that it lasted longer. As they pulled into Roy's tiny hometown of Paxton, Lucas couldn't seem to shake the feeling of foreboding.

Maybe it was just his fatalistic instincts talking, but every time something good had managed to happen to him it had been followed by at least twice as many negative things, so he was highly suspicious.

It wasn't until the truck actually pulled up in front of a little green house that Lucas realized exactly what the problem was.

It was perfect.

It looked like something out of a storybook of rural America. An antique looking two-story farmhouse, sitting in the middle of a few acres of grass, it was unlike anything Lucas had ever seen in reality. It was like a dream of peaceful, happy life.

A life that Lucas didn't fit into.

He already knew that Roy had a beautiful wife and two daughters waiting for him, along with all the trappings of a perfect rural life. It was all of the things that Lucas had never expected to have. The things that Lucas suddenly had no chance of ever having.

He felt out of place, even just looking in on Roy's idyllic life. He wasn't ever going to have a life like that. He was just a mutant freak, in every possible sense of the term.

He didn't deserve a life like that.

Oblivious to Lucas' internal pain, Roy grinned over at him. "Well, here we are. Hope that Nebraska isn't too depressing for you."

Smiling back as best he could, Lucas shook his head. "It's beautiful."

Laughing loudly, Roy shook his head at he opened the door and climbed down out of his truck. Turning to close the door, he smiled indulgently at Lucas. "You've obviously never been to Nebraska before. The word most of us use is 'boring'."

Lucas climbed down from the truck, and came around the front in time to see Roy assaulted by two small children who appeared to be moving at the speed of light. Their mother hung back a bit, but seemed no less happy to see her husband.

The charming scene before him caused the knife that seemed permanently embedded in Lucas' heart to twist painfully.

Freaks didn't have happy families waiting for them in Nebraska, or anywhere else, for that matter.

No one was waiting for Lucas to return home.

He didn't even have a home, anymore.

And there he was, jealous of one of the only people who had even spoken to him since the accident. He couldn't seem to stop being jealous, even though the fact that he was made him feel even worse.

Was it really surprising, though? He had always been a selfish person. Being a mutant had just made it even worse. He was hardly even human anymore.

Or was he even human at all?

His stomach turned, and Lucas stared at his shoes in discomfort. He hoped that he wasn't actually turning green, but felt as though he was.

He heard a soft feminine voice then, a voice that seemed directed at him. "And who's this?"

He tried to make himself look up, but felt glued in place; as though the force of gravity had suddenly increased exponentially. He wanted so very much to move, even if just to collapse; but he couldn't seem to do anything.

Inhuman.

"Oh, damn. Sorry, Kiddo. Almost forgot that you were there."

Invisible.

The story of his life, really. Most people just never bothered to admit that they had forgotten about his existence.

"Girls, this is Alex." Roy walked over and put an arm around Lucas' shoulder. "He's gonna be staying with us for a while."

Suddenly, he found himself accosted by two little balls of energy, asking questions faster than he could have responded, let alone come up with the appropriate responses.

Still, though, he couldn't bring himself to move.

Part of him wanted to scream, to do anything to keep them from touching him. Even being with other people couldn't make him feel human anymore.

Even worse, them being with him seemed wrong. It was as though he would somehow taint them by his mere presence.

Finding his strength and voice, though, Lucas did what he had always done best.

He acted as though nothing had changed in those horrifying moments of immobility.

He pretended that everything was fine.

It was the one useful skill that he had left, and he put it to good use.

Pre-dawn the next morning found Lucas sneaking out of the house, carrying nothing more than he had come in with. He had considered leaving the money he had, but it was all that would keep him in food, and even that would only last so long…

So instead, he had left a note, thanking Roy and his family for their kind hospitality, and apologizing for leaving so unexpectedly. He didn't explain why he was leaving, but he didn't know how to explain it. Even if he had been better with words, it was probably for the best that he not tell them. As kind as they had been to him, he didn't want them to worry about him.

His staying could only put them in danger.

The only thing he could do anymore was hurt people.

Tuesday, May 6, 5:45 A.M.

SeaQuest DSV, Captain's Quarters

At first, he thought that the irritating noise was an alarm of some sort.

Or maybe it was his alarm clock.

As the sleep-induced haze in his head cleared, he realized that it was his vid-link buzzing at him, demanding his immediate attention.

It wasn't particularly surprising. It was one of the first times since Lucas' disappearance that Nathan had actually been able to sleep, and it was interrupted. He just wasn't meant to sleep properly, he supposed.

He slowly swung his feet over the edge of his bunk and rubbed his eyes before activating the annoying machine. "What is it?" He irritably demanded a reason for why his sleep had been interrupted. He probably didn't look very imposing, newly awoken, sitting hunched over in his bunk, and still wearing his pajamas, but he didn't much care.

"Really, Nathan. I think it's time for you to take a vacation." Even the surprisingly upbeat voice of his old friend Bill Noyce wasn't going to fix his mood that easily, though.

Sighing, he shook his head and looked sorrowfully back at his pillow. Then he glared up at his friend and asked in the same annoyed tone, "Do you want something, Bill, or am I going back to bed?"

Smiling indulgently, Bill leaned toward the screen. "I suppose that you could go back to bed, but I really don't think you want to do that, Nathan."

Curious as to what could make Bill so smug, Nathan actually began to wake up. "What is it? What's going on?"

Smiling even more, Noyce held up a piece of paper. "This, my friend, is what you've been looking for. I got a call this morning that may well prove you haven't gone off the deep end yet."

Frowning deeply, Nathan wondered if his exhaustion was affecting his ears. "I still haven't heard why you've called, Bill. And I assure you, no one could possibly prove my sanity, not even you."

"Not even you can ruin this mood, Nathan. Now I suggest that you call these people right away. They have an interesting story for you." Bill pressed the paper up against the screen so that Nathan could read the numbers on it, and then continued. "A story about a blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenager, who was in San Francisco less than a week ago."

Sitting straight up in his bunk, Nathan hit his head.

Ignoring the pain in his head and the ringing in his ears, Nathan nearly ransacked his own desk looking for a convenient piece of paper on which to write the number Bill was offering.

Then he proceeded to hang up on Bill without saying goodbye. As he was dialing the number, he realized what he had done. It didn't even give make him pause, though. Bill would understand.

A few seconds later, he was looking into huge blue eyes. They seemed somewhat disappointed to see him, and if he had been in any other mental state, that fact would have amused him.

"Bethany! How many times do I have to tell you not to mess with that?"

Frowning, the adorable child crossed her arms over her chest. "Only once."

Coming up beside the child, a somewhat haggard looking man picked her up and looked at Nathan apologetically. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm not used to looking after her all the time, and until her mother gets out of the hospital…" Trailing off, the man sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Is there something I can help you with? Bethany, stop squirming."

The squirming child scowled at him. "I'm Anne, now, Daddy. The angel said so."

Sighing again, the man opened his mouth to say something to the girl, but obviously thought better of it. He shook his head and looked back over at Nathan, who was trying very hard not to look amused.

"I'm Captain Nathan Bridger of the UEO vessel seaQuest. I'm sorry to bother you, but I understand that you may have some information on one of my crew members." Nathan realized that he didn't look particularly impressive in his pajamas, but if the man actually had information on Lucas, he couldn't care less.

"Oh! You're the man that the Admiral said would be calling." The man looked down at his daughter, and motioned to the screen. "Bethany, why don't you tell the Captain what happened?"

Suddenly shy, the girl buried herself in her father's chest and peered at Nathan through her hair. Looking up at her father, she asked "About the angel?"

Giving Nathan the apologetic look again, he nodded to her.

The girl bit her lip for a moment before speaking again. "The angel came and got me from the fire, cause Daddy couldn't."

Blinking repeatedly, Nathan wasn't quite sure what to make of the confusing yet adorable description.

Her father patted her on the head. "I'm afraid she doesn't make much sense, and I don't know exactly what happened, but I'll try to explain. You see, our apartment building caught fire on Friday night, and Bethany was stuck in her room. It appears that someone scaled the fire escape and went through our neighbor's apartment in order to get Bethy out."

"Daddy…"

"And apparently, he told her that her name is Anne."

Nodding matter-of-factly, the girl looked at Nathan curiously. "Do you know the angel?"

"That just may be, young lady." Nathan was briefly uncertain of how to proceed, but knew very well that he needed to be certain that the 'angel' in question was actually Lucas. "Why don't you tell me more about your angel, so that we can find out for sure if I know him?"

Squirming her way out of her father's arms, the girl sat down in front of the vid-link and bit her lip. "He had gold hair. And he was crying."

Trying not to chuckle at the less than helpful description, Nathan smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "Do you remember anything else?"

Drawing her eyebrows together, the child thought for a few seconds. "It stopped hurting when he was there."

That had certainly come out of nowhere.

Nathan didn't recall Lucas having any miraculous powers of healing, and the vagueness of the girl's description was beginning to make him wonder why Bill had been so convinced that the boy in question was Lucas.

Just as the depression started to descend again, though, the girl's father spoke up. "We were beginning to think that we weren't going to be able to find the young man at all, but then last night, my sister brought a newspaper home. We're staying with her, you see, until we can find a new place. And there was an article in it about the missing boy; Lucas, is it? Bethy recognized him right away; she's convinced that he's her angel."

Sitting back in his bunk, Nathan could only nod in response.

Lucas had been alive only a few days before.

Saving little girls in San Francisco from fires.

He wasn't sure whether he was proud or horrified at Lucas putting himself in such danger.

There was time for concern later, though. For the time being, he had to get as much information as possible, before his only lead on Lucas' whereabouts had grown too cold. Nathan was uncertain of why, but his instinct told him to cut the detective out of the picture, and use his other resources to investigate.

Getting all the information he could out of the man and his daughter, Nathan promised that he would contact them immediately upon finding Lucas.

And for the first time since the accident, he was completely convinced that he would find Lucas.

Alive.