I woke with a start, then promptly pulled a pillow over my face. "Ariadne, get out of my bed. It's like 5 a.m."

My sister snorted and yanked the pillow away. "Try 10, and it's your wedding day, so I suggest you drink the coffee and get up." I bolted upright. Wedding day? Right. Wedding day. "Theeeeere it is," Ariadne said sarcastically, shoving a mug in my hand.

I grimaced, but accepted it and went to take a shower. Twenty minutes later, I emerged with wet hair only to find a flock of women in my bedroom, all in varying states of undress. "Uh, what exactly happened to everyone getting dressed in a hotel?"

"Yeah, you were overruled," Ariadne said casually, curled up on my bed sipping her coffee with an evil grin. I thinned my lips and threw my towel at her – I didn't have anything that every woman in the room didn't have a pair of herself, so nudity didn't faze me –, nailing her in the head.

"Hero, that is not bride-like behavior," my mother chastised, sounding bored as she applied her makeup at my vanity. "And Ariadne, stop taunting your sister. It's her wedding day."

"Yes, Mom," we said at the same time, though I stuck my tongue out at my sister when she smirked at me.

"Now put some clothes on, Hero. We have hair and makeup appointments," Mom instructed.

I blinked. "'We'? What is this 'we'?" Hair and makeup had been my planned relaxation for the day... the only relaxation, since Mom had planned out the entire day down to the minute. "Who else is coming?"

"All of us," my sister-in-law Gretchen chimed in, holding her hands up as if to say "TA-DA!" "Surprise!"

"But...I was told there would be massages," I said, feeling very much like Milton in Office Space.

Mom stole my coffee from my hands with a raised eyebrow. "You're the bride. You should know by now that what you want doesn't matter."

"Besides, I'm sure Gabriel will make sure you're very relaxed tonight," teased my cousin Rachel, and the other women laughed. I just rolled my eyes with an amused smile and disappeared into my closet to get dressed.

Several hours later, the women and my family tried to kill me in a church. Well, technically, they were lacing me into a corset, but this wasn't the sexy number I'd worn to Gabriel's birthday. No, this thing was designed to conquer fat, and I was fairly sure it was made of steel, because I was pretty positive that I felt some of my ribs crack as I lost all ability to breathe.

"Stop whining, Hero. It hurts to be beautiful," my grandmother chided as she watched my sister tighten the contraption. I shot my mother an incredulous look across the room; I hadn't said a word, because there was no way I was wasting my limited oxygen supply on speech. Ariadne snickered from behind me as she tied the corset closed, not needing to see my face to know what I was thinking.

My mother clapped her hands rather imperiously. "Bring out the dress." Instantly, one of my cousins brought out the bagged hanger that held my wedding dress.

It had been my Grandmother's, then my mother's, then my sister's, and now mine. It had been hand stitched by my great-grandmother, a well-known seamstress in her time. The floor-length gown had yellowed slightly with age, but still maintained the simple elegance that had lead four women to wear it, with a lace collar and bodice, and long, fitted sleeves. The skirt was made of several layers of tulle that still floated slightly when its wearer moved. It was also the reason that I'd had to be laced so tightly into my corset; my grandmother had been smaller than I when she wore the gown, and I hadn't wanted to be the first person to have the dress altered. It was also the reason that I hadn't needed months to plan the wedding, since I didn't have to order the gown.

Finally, I fought my way through the layers of the dress to poke my head through the top, and my mother promptly burst into tears. For a moment, Ariadne and I looked at each other in bewilderment – this wasn't normally when she cried at her children's weddings – then both of us knelt by her chair, not caring about our dresses. "Momma, it's ok."

"I'm sorry," she said shakily. "You're just my last baby to get married."

"Dry your eyes, Sugarfoot," my grandmother said gently, using her petname for my mother. "Hero isn't the last any more than you were my last. Your grandbabies will get married, too."

I nodded as she patted my mom's shoulder. "Nanette is right. Don't cry."

My niece came up and climbed into Mom's lap, wrapping her arms around my mother's neck. "It'll be ok. I'll wear the dress, too." The adult women laughed wetly at the innocent words that would probably be true in twenty more years, and the photographer snapped a picture at that moment.

"This is the perfect photo," the woman said with a smile. "Four generations of brides."

A knock at the door interrupted us, and my twin brother's head popped in with a hand covering his eyes. "Everyone put clothes on. I don't want to see anything nasty." We laughed and told him to come in. Leo smiled as he saw me standing there. "Well, Evil Twin, you look positively angelic. What will you do with your horns?"

I rolled my eyes, but accepted his hug. "They'll be firmly tucked away in my veil."

He laughed and stepped firmly into the room, revealing a box in his hand. "I come bearing gifts."

I clapped my hands gleefully before reaching for it. "I love presents. Gimme!"

He grinned and held it above my head tauntingly, knowing I couldn't jump in the dress. "What's the magic word?"

"Mooooooom," I whined.

"Well, that's a magic word," Leo said grumpily.

My mom coughed to cover a laugh. "Leonidas, give your sister the box. It's her wedding day, so she's fully within her rights to hurt you with impunity." Leo sighed and handed it to me, and I smirked triumphantly as I accepted it; no matter how old we got, Leo and I would always be about five years old to each other.

I gasped when I opened the box to reveal a silver locket, pearls embedded in the oval face. Biting my lip to fight tears, I opened the locket to see a picture of us taken at his birthday party. I was laughing at Emma, who had taken the picture, and Gabriel was smiling down at me in absolute adoration. On the other side of the locket was an inscription: As long as I have breath in my body. Gabriel.

"Oh, that asshole is gonna make me cry right before I walk down the aisle," I sighed, staring up at the ceiling in an effort to contain my tears. Ariadne pinched my arm. "OW! What the hell, woman?"

She arched an eyebrow. "You're not about to cry anymore," she pointed out. "Now put it on, and get walking. It's time to go."

I stuck my tongue out at her, but obediently clasped the necklace around my neck. Ariadne quickly slipped my veil into my hair and pulled the front over my face. She stepped back to give me a critical once-over before nodding. "You're ready."

Nervously, I followed Leonidas out of the room, the other women tailing me.

Dad became distinctly teary-eyes when he saw me approach, and I frowned at him, wagging my finger in warning. "Don't you dare, cause if you cry, then I'll cry, and I'm wearing way too much eyeliner for that to be an option."

He laughed wetly, but held out his arm, which I readily laced my own through. Mom came and hugged me tightly, pressing a kiss to my cheek. "These are your last moments as a single woman. I love you so much." She sniffed pathetically one more time, then disappeared into the chapel.

"You can still run, you know," Dad whispered in my ear. "Just nod your head, and I'll get you out of here before anyone notices."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, pressing a kiss to my Dad's cheek. "I love you, too, Daddy." The wedding planner nodded pointedly at us, and we straightened our clothes briefly just as the doors swung open.

My gaze immediately sought Gabriel as we walked down the aisle, and he looked awed when we locked gazes. He was normally a very contained man, but the love and pride in his eyes made me beam brilliantly at him. In his tailored suit with his hair combed back and his thick eyebrows highlighting his dark eyes...I had never seen a more handsome man, and I hoped he could see the pride in my eyes. He was everything I wanted.

It seemed take an eternity to reach him, but finally I found myself standing before him, but finally Dad placed my hand in Gabriel's, and I stepped up to the alter, handing my bouquet to Ariadne, my maid of honor.

I knelt slightly as Gabriel lifted my veil, smiling warmly at me as we finally clasped hands.

"Friends," the priest said, "we come here now to bind together two souls in the everlasting bonds of marriage. Here, in view of us all, they shall speak their vows. What God has brought together, let no man part. We shall now hear your vows."

Gabriel's soothing baritone rang clearly through the chapel, but I saw the tears in his eyes as he looked at me. "Hero, I've waited 37 years for you. There were times I despaired of ever finding you, but now that I have, I realize every second was just to prepare me to be a man worthy of you. I'm not a great man, and there are things I wish I could change about myself, but you make me a better man just by looking at me the way you are now. I waited 37 years to find you, and now I look at the woman before me, so beautiful that it makes my heart ache, and I know I would wait another thousand if it meant another moment with you." I smiled at him now through my tears as he took my hand and slid a thin silver band next to my engagement ring.

It was my turn to speak, and I looked nervously at the audience. "Breathe,

Hero," Gabriel murmured with a reassuring smile, his eyes warm and calming. "Ignore them. Just talk to me."

I smiled gratefully at him and took a deep breath, relaxing a little as he met my eyes patiently. "Gabriel, I've known since the day we met that if people were rain, I'm drizzle and you're a hurricane. I could promise that I will spend my life worshiping you, but that would be a disservice. Those vows are for idealistic couples ruled by their hearts. I am not idealistic. I am not ruled by my heart." I took a breath. "I am sure. I am steady. And I know what I am made of. So this I am sure: you have become my best friend, my confidant, my partner, and my protector. This heart, it beats for you. So today, I promise to be at your side no matter the world throws at us. I promise that you will never find yourself on your knees without my hand to help you stand. I promise you that you will never know what it's like to be alone. I promise you me." Ariadne handed me a gold band, and I worked it onto Gabriel's finger.

"Now that Gabriel Gray and Hero Ramsey have given themselves to each other by the promises they have exchanged, I pronounce them to be husband and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." The priest smiled at us. "You may kiss the bride."

Gabriel grabbed my face and kissed me as the congregation cheered, and I laughed against his lips when he fist pumped victoriously. Hand in hand, we left the church, beaming at each other as he helped me into the silver Bentley that waited for us.

The reception was where we had decided to spend the real money, open bar and a live band in a hotel ballroom. When Peter had told me how many people wanted to come to what I'd intended to be a small wedding, I'd been flummoxed until he explained that the recent press and the influence I'd had over the Special community had turned me into something of a figurehead. This, in turn, meant that the wedding had become a see-and-be-seen event, and ballroom was filled with not only family and friends, but also the who's who of New York socialites. As a wedding gift (and what I suspected was excellent PR) Mr. Aringheri had offered to pay for the whole thing as thanks. Given that his company was raking in cash from my team's hard work, Gabriel and I had decided to let him.

"Thank you," Gabriel was saying to a beautiful brunette in what I suspected was Versace. She smiled with a bat of her lashes that made me raise my eyebrows, and fluttered away from the high table where we sat. Gabriel leaned over. "Who the hell was that?"

"No idea," I replied instantly, smiling and waving back to a couple I didn't recognize. "I literally have no clue who half our guests are."

I caught his grin in the corner of my eye when he brushed a lock of my hair over my shoulder. "Wanna play a game," he asked mischievously in my ear.

I peered at him sideways, a smile playing at my lips. "What did you have in mind?"

"We could start messing with them. For instance, see that woman coming over to congratulate us?" I followed his gaze to the woman he was talking about, my hackles instantly rising at the coy smile and extraordinarily slutty dress Ms. Double D's was wearing. "We could pretend we know her, and call her by some random name. I'm thinking Gloria."

I buried my face in my glass of sparkling grape juice to cover my laugh. "I knew I married you for a reason," I murmured. louder, Gloria, how nice to see you again. Thank you for coming!"

"I'm surprised you made it. I thought you and Phil were in the Bahamas," Gabriel added with a surprised look that even I would have bought.

The woman's eyes were wide, and her smile slipped for a moment before being back to full brightness. Her super-white teeth gleamed in the dim light as she watched Gabriel, subtly leaning over so he could get a full view of her cleavage. "Oh, I dumped Phil," she lied brightly. Her gaze was predatory as she placed a hand on his arm, adding, "I'm playing the field. He was a terrible lover."

Gabriel noticed my eyes narrow, and quickly interceded. "He's your brother." Gabriel's look of horror was so genuine that even I would have bought it.

The woman looked equally horrified, but she was stuck: either admit she had lied, or keep with the sordid tale. Flustered, she didn't even try to recover. "I... congratulations. ..bye."

I arched an eyebrow at Gabriel. "You're a little evil, you know that?"

He coughed into his champagne glass. "I wasn't the one who wanted to rip off her breast implants and shove them down her throat." My surprise must have shown on my face, because he shot me a look and set down his glass. "I didn't need telepathy to know what you were thinking. You have a glass face."

I shrugged daintily. "You're my man."

Amused, he eyed me sideways for a heartbeat, then stood up and pulled me to my feet. He waited until we had the attention of the room before pulling me to him and kissing me deeply in front of all our guests. I readily kissed him back, but then he dipped me back like the V-Day kiss and I melted a little, lost in the intensity of his lips moving over mine. I snapped back to reality and laughed against his lips when applause and wolf-whistles erupted around the room, Peter and Ariadne the loudest of all. "Think that got the point across," he asked when we straightened, our faces still a breath apart, his face a portrait of male satisfaction.

Beet red from both pleasure and embarrassment, I coughed into my fist. "Yep, that'd do it."

He grinned wickedly, then held up his hand for silence, his other arm still holding me to his side. "Thank you all for coming and sharing this day with us. Now, I'm taking my wife home." If I was blushing before, my face was now threatening to spontaneously combust as he tugged me away from the table.

The applause and laughter from so many people covered the sharp crack of gunfire, and all I felt was the sudden fire that exploded over my arm. Gabriel looked back to see why I had suddenly stiffened, but then his gaze dropped to my dress, which was already red with blood.

There was an almost visible change when he became Sylar, his eyes darkening and his face growing cold as ice. He pulled me against his chest and covered my head with his hand, shielding me with his own body as he dragged me over to the nearest door, fighting his way through the panicking crowd. My heart was in my throat and my hands instinctively covered my belly, as though the small appendages could protect the growing life inside me.

The doors were blocked in the mass exodus and Gabriel obviously saw the same threat from trampling that I did, because a table spontaneously flipped onto its side and he shoved me down. "You will stay here," he growled before straightening, his eyes almost glowing with an animalistic, predatory anger that someone had wounded his pregnant mate.

Thinking quickly as others cowered beside me, I grabbed a nearby purse and rifled through it until I found a compact mirror and a cell phone. I angled the mirror see what was going on as I called 911 with the other hand.

"911. What is your emergency?"

Through the crowd and my low vantage point, I couldn't see the shooter, but Gabriel didn't have the same problem. He was steadily stalking towards one corner of the room, telekinetically flipping over tables as he went for trapped guests to hide behind. "A gunman has opened fire in one of The Plaza ballrooms. We'll need a lot of ambulances and police." Peter appeared out of nowhere at Sylar's side, and together they approached the shooter.

"Ma'am, what is your name?"

I gasped as a bullet pierced Sylar and he paused, but straightened after a moment. "Dr. Hero Ramsey. Shit, I mean Hero Gray. It's my wedding reception."

"Dr. Grey, I need you to not panic. Find a bathroom and lock yourself in. Do not engage the gunman. Stay on the line with me. Police are on their way."

I pulled the phone away from my ear to look at it incredulously. "We're trapped in a ballroom full of people with superpowers, and you think no one is going to 'engage the gunman'," I asked sarcastically. "Someone is already engaging the damn gunman, and it's my freaking husband and his freaking Best Man."

"Ma'am, calm down. Are you in a safe place?"

I could see the shooter reloading now that most of the guests had fled or were cowering behind tables, and I hastily gave the operator a description. "The gunman is tall, maybe 6'1? And I'd ballpark his age to me late 50's, early 60's. Gray hair, wearing a blue windbreaker and khakis."

Gabriel flung him across the room and pinned him against the wall, and the man lay there stunned for a moment. The operator said something, but I ignored her, focused on the gunman raising his gun. I hissed when Gabriel took a flurry of bullets to the chest and abdomen that lifted him off his feet, and Peter telekinetically ripped the gun from his hand. "If he makes me a widow before I get my wedding night, I'm going to put my foot so far up his ass he'll choke on it," I snarled, unsure if I was referring to the gunman or my husband.

Gabriel picked himself up off the floor and I saw the bullets fall as he healed himself. Thank God for Rapid Cellular Regeneration. The operator repeated whatever she said, but I just thrust the phone behind me, "Talk to the operator." Whoever was behind me – I thought I remembered a man in his twenties – grabbed the phone.

The gun was out of the shooter's hands now, so I stood and ran towards Sylar and Peter as they dropped the man to the floor and towered over him menacingly. Both men looked up as I reached them. My husband looked like he wanted to strangle me. "I told you to stay there."

"I have selective hearing problems," I retorted distractedly. My attention was on the man glaring at me with pure hatred. "Who are you? Why did you do this? Was it my work?"

He spat at me, and my husband telekinetically backhanded him. He shook it off and glared at Sylar. "You're a serial killer. You killed my wife!"

"And you wanted him to feel the same pain," Peter said, glancing up at me.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "How is it that I'm still the target, even when it's not me they're mad at?"

"Because you married a monster," the man spat. "What kind of devil whore does that?"

I opened my mouth to retort – stupid, I know—, but my clever rejoinder was cut off when the man yanked out a small gun and shot me before any of us could react. All of us looked at my abdomen, where blood blossomed like a macabre flower on the white of my wedding gown.

Dazed, I pressed my hand to the wound and looked up at my husband, whose eyes were horrified. He caught me as I started to fall, and I vaguely noticed Peter literally punch the shooter unconscious. "I thought that only worked in movies," I murmured dizzily as Peter knelt beside us.

"Hero, focus on me," Gabriel said firmly. And it was him, Gabriel, not Sylar, cradling me in his arms on the floor. I looked up at him. Those strong eyebrows and the beard already darkening his jaw really were perversely his most attractive feature. You wouldn't expect that of body hair.

"So, this sucks," I said dizzily, before coughing on the blood that was filling my throat.

Emma was suddenly at my side, her blue bridesmaid's dress spotted with blood, though I suspected it was someone else's. "You really do look good in blue," I observed fuzzily, then screamed as she pressed hard on my abdomen. The pain made it somehow click in my head, and everything became suddenly very real, and I knew I was dying.

"Hero." My panicked gaze flicked to Gabriel, who cupped my face. He looked truly terrified for the first time since I'd know him. "You do not get to die on me."

"We knew it was going to happen sooner or later, sweetheart," I told him gently. Or at least, I tried to. It came out sort of blood-choked.

He pressed his forehead against mine, and there was wetness on my face that I knew were his tears. "Please don't leave me. Please? Please fight it." To hear such a strong, nigh omnipotent man who I loved so much begging like his own life depended on made my heart physically ache in my chest, and I summoned the strength to touch his face gently. It seemed that was all my body could take, and then everything went black.