It was the strangest dream. Even deeply asleep, my brain registered that it was odd, but it was intriguing.

I was watching Gabriel float objects around as he went through his morning routine; his damp towel drifted to a hook as he stepped out of the bathroom, and his head cocked to the side as he listened to the news, shuddering slightly as some politician denied cheating on his wife. "He's lying," Gabriel commented distractedly as he buttoned his shirt. "It was the intern. It's always the intern."

It was utterly normal, something I'd seen him do so often that it had imprinted in my mind. But this time was different, because as he moved, I could see how everything was working in his brain. Calculations and formulas I was literally seeing in my sleep seemed to float in the air around him. There was practically a giant red arrow pointing at his head, saying "the answer is here!"

But it didn't make sense. Every time Gabriel switched powers, so did his brain's manner of interacting with his environment. It was innate to him, something he didn't have to think about, but it was actually an incredibly complex orchestra that allowed him to turn the TV off from across the room. His brain was affecting Suresh particles in its own chemical composition that were then mirrored by select particles in the air around the TV.

As I watched, Gabriel stopped using his abilities. He didn't miss a beat, just casually began going about his morning the way any Normal would. The only difference was that a small part of his brain, a part so subtle yet so incredibly powerful, went suddenly dormant.

I sat up in bed so abruptly that I accidentally threw myself over the side and to the floor. It felt disconcertingly like my brain had just face-palmed. "Hero? What's wrong," Gabriel asked groggily, peering over the side of the bed at me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said excitedly. I kissed him fiercely. "I've figured it out. You showed me."

"I what," Gabriel asked blearily.

"Right. It was actually my own brain, not yours. Normals are always dormant in that part of the brain," I explained hurriedly, already in the closet and throwing on clothes.

"Huh?" His brain was clearly not awake enough to process what I was saying, but that was fine.

I kissed him briefly. "I'm having a life-changing, career-altering epiphany. Go back to sleep, honey." He was already unconscious as I yanked my phone roughly from its charger and hurried out of the room.

Moving as fast as I could, I shoved shoes on my feet and snatched my jacket off the coat hanger, heading to the door. At the last second, I remembered I would need my purse and frantically searched for it as I started scrolling through my contacts on my phone. I found it on the entry table and was out the door a heartbeat later. I pressed Call on my phone as I ran down the stairs of the apartment building.

"It's 6:30 in the morning, Hero," my favorite graduate assistant answered crankily. "You'd better be bleeding in a ditch somewhere."

"Steven, meet me at the lab. I just cracked the project." I hung up, knowing better than to give him a chance to object.

I hailed the first cab I saw and was at the lab within 15 minutes. Sheer dumb luck seemed to be on my side, because a night custodian was cleaning the lobby when I made it to the bolted glass doors. Not knowing what else to do, I pressed my university ID against the glass, showing him that I was authorized to be there.

Five minutes later, I was booting up a computer and rapidly typing the notes and ideas emerging in my mind, my fingers flying over the keys in my haste to not forget anything.

Steven meandered in ten minutes later, looking like he could fall asleep on the floor. "I see neither a ditch nor blood."

"What if, instead of blocking the manipulation of outside particles, we blocked the particles in their own physiology?"

His eyebrows lifted, and he took a seat beside me. "It never occurred to me to shut down their ability at the source. But wouldn't that run the risk of permanently disabling someone's ability?"

"Not if it is an ongoing field," I pointed out. "It could work like a pacemaker."

"But then, we're still back at the same problem. Everyone interacts with the particle differently."

I shook my head excitedly. "No, the way we interact with external particles varies, but the way human brains control their own particles is universally the same. Like how the brain processes any other kind of information," I explained. "Which neurons fire and the pathways taken are unique to each individual, but it's always neurons that fire."

Steven was beginning to get on board, and stood up to pace restlessly. "Ok, so how can we focus the field on that part of the brain without interfering with other neurological activity?"

"The section that controls abilities is isolated," I said eagerly. "If we can alter the field to the frequency of those brainwaves, we block them."

Steven was leaning over my shoulder to read the calculations. "We would have to change the design. The field we have now is too broad."

That one was a stumper, and I was silent for a moment as I thought. "Sound can affect the brain. What if you changed it from a field to a tone?"

He grinned triumphantly. "The waves would theoretically neutralize those in that section of the brain. The frequency is unique to the individual, but we can easily tailor each device to its owner. Hero, this is perfect!"

0o0o0o0o0

Three weeks later, I stood shakily, my eyes glued to the middle-aged brunette across from me. "I thought you were calling us in here to congratulate me."

Across the desk from me, Dr. Stanton sighed. "I'm sorry, Hero, but this has gone on far enough. The bad press is bad for the department, you don't have a prototype, and you're draining money from the university. What am I supposed to do?"

"Angela, you can't shut us down. We've figured it out! We do have a prototype designed, all that's left is to build it. We're further with this than we've ever been before. THIS is the answer."

Her eyes flashed at me. "I can shut you down, and I am. In order to do this project, your team – my staff – has been working unpaid overtime upwards of 40 hrs a week on top of their normal schedules. They're exhausted, mentally and physically, and their work in other areas will begin slipping."

"But we're at the finish line," I hissed. "We're going to save lives!"

"NO! No, Dr. Ramsey. I'm going to save lives," she snapped, throwing a folder on the table in front of me. When I didn't move, she gestured for me to take a look. "Someone knows what you're doing. Ever since your project has picked up momentum, the department has been receiving death and bomb threats. So far, the police don't view them as credible, but this has gone far enough. For God's sake, CTH is camped on your doorstep! What if something happens and we didn't do something?"

Sick at heart, I threw the folder on the table and met Angela's eyes. "Fine. Shut us down. But I'm going to finish this project, even if I have to do it alone. It's too important."

"Hero, go away for a while," she said, sounding resigned. "Take a vacation. Go somewhere warm. Just…take a breath."

I stormed out of the office and down the hall, my mind whirling as it tried to figure out how I was going to do this. Friends and colleagues watched me pass, but seemed to know by the look on my face that they shouldn't bother me.

I made it to the outside of the building and I didn't know where to go or what to do. How did I start all over?

Something inside me snapped at the thought, I just took off running down the streets of New York, no destination in mind.

When it started pouring down icy rain, I slowed to a walk, realizing that I hadn't even brought a jacket with me. Tugging my thin white lab coat closer around me, I kept striding down the street, miserable.

How had I come so close, so damn close, only to have everything fall apart at the last minute? Our engineer had designed the prototypes, and we had sent the schematics off to be made. It would have worked. It would have been perfect.

I'd managed to pull everything back together by sheer determination and elbow grease. It had been an impossible task, but I'd done it. I'd gotten the funding, the team, the volunteers, the lab space. All those sleepless nights, all the stress, and all the fear…it was for nothing. After all that work, it was all gone a heartbeat before we crossed the finish line.

It was just too much for one person to take. How could one person handle all of this?

And who the hell would send death threats? How could someone hate me so much that they wanted to kill me? How could a stranger want me dead? Had Amanda received them when she was point-man? Did she read a letter like those before the bombing? Had she known? Had she been afraid?

The thought of my friend and mentor sent another bolt of pain through my heart, and I desperately wished I could talk to her. Unbidden, the image of her charred body burning in the fire came to mind.

Though I hadn't been paying attention to where I'd been going, I was strangely unsurprised to find myself standing in front of Gray and Sons. It seemed my body knew what I needed more than I did. The shop was lit up against the darkening night, and when I opened the door, it felt like walking into a safe haven. The air inside was warm, but I was frozen to the bone.

Gabriel looked up from his desk and stood up in alarm when he saw me standing there, shivering and dripping all over his floor. "Hero? Are you alright," he asked, quickly striding over to me, one hand waving a towel over from the back room. His hands were warm as they cupped my jaw, gently turning my head to check me over for injuries. "You're freezing. Did you walk here from the university in that downpour?" I nodded shakily, my teeth chattering too hard to speak. "Jesus. I've got a change of clothes in the back. Let's get you warmed up."

He led me to the back room and began to strip me of my sodden clothes. My cashmere sweater followed the white lab coat to the floor, and I stepped out of my pants. He rubbed warm hands against my icy arms to increase circulation. Gabriel didn't ask any questions, just handed me dry clothes and went to make coffee, leaving me alone to change.

Finally, I emerged from the bathroom. The clothes were several sizes too big for me and swallowed me, but they were dry and warm. Gabriel had closed the shop for the night, and the smell of brewing coffee drifted through the room, summoning me to where he had a small office in the back. He was sitting at a desk waiting for me, two steaming cups of coffee in front of him.

"What happened, Hero," he asked, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me.

"Everything has fallen apart," I said, laying my head on his shoulder. "The university has officially cut the program, and not just the funding. They've been receiving death threats against me and the entire team…they've completely scrapped the project."

He sighed. "I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

There was a long silence. "I just…I'm so tired," I whispered. "I give up. I can't do this anymore, Gabriel. It's too hard."

His arms tightened around me and he pressed a kiss to my hair before resting his cheek against my forehead. We lapsed into silence, but the feeling of being warm and dry and cared for was enough for me.

"Come away with me."

The words startled me, and I realized I had started to doze in his arms. "Where?"

"Does it matter," he asked. "We could go anywhere. Japan, Australia, France…anywhere."

I snorted. "All my money went to the project. I'm barely covering rent and food."

He was silent for a moment. "So move in with me."

I could feel the tension in his arms as he suggested it, afraid that I would reject him. I'd never lived with a man before, and it seemed a little soon, since we'd only known each other for a few months. It would indelibly change our relationship. Still, I couldn't deny that the idea had merit, and the thought was appealing.

"Before I say yes, you should probably know that I don't clean well," I said hesitantly.

He was so startled that he started laughing, and he gently turned my face up to kiss me. "I clean well enough for the both of us." Smiling, he kissed me again, and watched me for a moment. "You'll do it?"

I nodded with the first real smile that I'd felt in hours. "We'll consider it an adventure."

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