It was Alec that started it all. He'd known it at the hospital, there Harry had been. This too small teenager with big eyes and no memories who had looked over at Hardison and answered his thoughts. Right then he knew, Alec Hardison had just found himself in the middle of an Origin Story. Because if this kid could read minds so easily, that made him a superhero in Alec's book. That night after they'd all left the hospital and returned home Alec had lay awake in the bed above Harry. He thought about everything he knew from comic books and movies. He knew that all superhero's need someone to mentor them, guide them down the right path.

Alec Hardison decided that, that was exactly what he was going to do.

With his help who knew what Harry could do? Besides Harry was a mess and it was obvious someone had done that to him. If those people came after Harry again Alec knew he'd need to be prepared.

The first few weeks were the hardest. Harry was an oddity which made settling in at Orwell High difficult. He was gaped at everywhere he went and constantly bombarded by the thoughts of his classmates and teachers. In addition to his daytime troubles Hardison knew Harry suffered terrible nightmares. More than once Alec had been awoken by Harry's agonized screams. When Harry awoke he could remember little of his dreams, only bright flashes of light and agonizing pain.

"What do people think about?" Came Alec's curious inquiry after weeks of holding it back. Harry gave him a startled look before answering.

"Sex."

"Really?"

"Yeah, at first I thought it was just because we're in high school but even the teachers think about it all the time." Harry replied with a grimace of distaste.

"No way!" Alec objected more out of disgust than doubt. Harry nodded.

"Mr. Jacobs wants to have sex with Tina Jansen." Alec couldn't hold back a gag as he pictured his sixty something history teacher with the head cheerleader.

"That's absolutely vile man, you can't be serious."

"It was all he could think about yesterday, I hid in the bathroom for the last twenty minutes of class just to get away from it."

"There's gotta be a way to help, I'll do some research." Alec promised. Harry smiled but Alec could tell the other boy didn't expect much.

Alec did not allow Harry's lack of faith to deter him. He turned to the two most reliable sources he had access too his personal comic book collection and an online community of superhero enthusiasts. Alec posted a short hypothetical about how budding mind readers learned to control their gifts. It sparked a flurry of responses that mostly settled on the same conclusion. Meditation.

Before Alec had settled on this resolution, an off hand comment would serve to change both their lives. It happened one friday afternoon, Harry lay on his bed reading a chapter in his history book as Alec lounged on the floor doing his "research" also know as reading through some of his older comics.

"You know Professor X reads minds." Alec volunteered, more to break the silence than anything else.

"I don't know who that is." Harry didn't even look up from his book. Alec didn't like Harry's lack of attention so he stood and moved beside him on the bed sliding his comic book on top of Harry's history book.

"He's the leader of the X-Men, look." Alec pointed but Harry's eyes were drawn to the side resting on Cyclops.

"I wonder if that would work for me."

"What?" Hardison asked in confusion.

"Covering my eyes. I mean I only know what you're thinking when you look in my eyes, so if my eyes were covered maybe I wouldn't hear you." Harry's eyes were wide and hopeful, so Alec nodded.

"I've got a pair of sunglasses, you wanna try it?" Harry nodded as Hardison moved to shuffle through his top dresser drawer for the glasses. A moment later Hardison held them out and Harry placed them over his eyes. Alec came to stand in front of him but after a moment Harry shook his head.

"It's no good, I can still see what you're thinking." Harry's shoulders slumped and he moved to take off the glass.

"No wait! It's still good. Think about it, you only see thoughts when you look into people's eyes right? Well with the glasses no one can tell where you're looking! Even if you can't block it out at least they'll help avoid it." Harry seemed to consider this for a long moment before nodding his head.

"You're right. At least it's something. Do you mind if I borrow them Alec?" Harry bit his lip anxiously as if he expected Alec to slap the glasses out of his hand but his foster brother just smiled.

"Nah man keep 'em. They look better on you anyway." Harry's grateful smile was enough to make Alec look back at his comic for a distraction. His eyes landed on Professor X and a thought occured him.

"You know Professor X didn't just read minds, he could control them."

Harry didn't respond and when Alec glanced up at him his eyes were still obscured by the glasses Alec had provided.

The break between classes was only ten minutes, so Alec was less than thrilled when Harry's hand clamped down on his and pulled him between the doors of school. Each exit had two separate sets of glass double doors, in a bid to keep cold winter weather outside, the small room this formed between them was one of the few places in the school that was reliably empty. Alec jerked his arm from Harry's grasp and was preparing several not very nice words for him when Harry spoke and derailed everything.

"I tried it." A hushed whisper, Harry was wearing the sunglasses but now Hardison noticed that Harry was even paler than usual with only his cheeks flushed bright red.

"Tried what?"

"I made the nurse write me a note." Harry replied pulling a scrap of paper from his pocket and waving it in Alec's face.

Alec reached up and captured the note from between Harry's fingers. It was scrawled somewhat jerkily on the school stationary in regular blue ink.

Harry Doe has permission to wear sunglasses as needed while in classes due to an acute light sensitivity.

Nurse Adriana Kent

Alec glanced at Harry, puzzled by the expectant look on his face.

"That's a good idea, now the teachers won't bug you but I still don't understand what you're talking about."

"She didn't want to give it to me. She wanted to do a bunch of tests but I made her. I thought it as hard as I could. I tried to make it sound like things she would think and then she just. . .wrote it." Harry shrugged his face slack with amazement even after the fact. Alec could only gape at him. He'd never really believed Harry could control people's minds, even with the mind reading that just seemed like too much.

A week later Alec convinced Harry to start meditating with him. They did it together an hour in the morning and an hour at night. Harry struggled at first, he had an active mind but Alec urged him to keep trying. Alec had noticed right from the bat how desperate to please Harry was toward both himself and Nana. Alec knew Harry was desperate for their approval and he used this against his troubled foster brother to keep him meditating.

A few weeks into their daily exercises something seemed to click for Harry. Meditation became so easy for him he maintained it constantly. He began to move through the world with an eerie calm. Harry wasn't able to stop reading thoughts but his new calmer self combined with the sun glasses made it easier for him live in the world, unshaken by the thoughts of those around him.

It was several months later after Alec and Harry had become as close as real brothers, that Alec offered himself up as a test subject for Harry's mind control. The turning point came for Alec after Harry had saved him once again from being beaten up by a boy he'd offended.. Harry saved Alec a lot from things like that because his smart mouth could get him into trouble. More and more these fights were avoided as word of mouth spread that Harry Doe knew some crazy fighting moves and would kick your ass if you messed with his foster brother.

Alec decided that since Harry always did everything he could to help him Alec had to do the same. He'd suggested it to Harry one quiet Friday night as they worked on their homework and Harry had agreed at once.

Parker stayed quiet as she tailed Harry from Nate's apartment. She was careful to stay far enough behind, so that the mind reader would never spot her. She didn't understand why Hardison had never mentioned his brother and she wanted to know more about him. It didn't take long for Harry to reach Hardison's home. Hardison had always had a flair for the dramatic and his residence in Portland was no exception. Built around the same time the city was settled the old house looked more like a castle complete with turrets and climbing ivy.

Parker had been there before and had scoped out all the best entry points. She waited until Harry was securely inside the house to scale one of the trees and drop into a third story window. She'd left it open the last time Hardison had invited her to visit. Not because she ever intended to steal from him but because it was always good to have a point of entry. Once she landed silently on the carpeted floor she crept out of the room listening closely for sounds of Harry moving.

The house was too large to make anything out, the walls were old and made noises of their own making it hard for Parker to tell what was normal and what was not. She considered briefly before deciding to check downstairs. After all she could always work her way back up if she needed to. The staircase was the riskiest place, there was only one grand one connecting all the floors so Parker moved slowly, keeping close to the wall.

Quite happily Parker caught sight of Hardison's brother entering a room on the very next floor. She crept down the hall body tense and ready to move out of sight at a moments notices but Harry didn't emerge from the room. It felt like forever before Parker found herself next to the door, it had been left open only a crack and she moved cautiously to peer inside. She couldn't see Harry and after waiting several minutes Parker pushed the door open slightly to get a better view.

The room strange but also nice. A king sized bed was the central point in the room, it was draped in a homey looking quilt and several pillow in varying colors. The room was painted sky blue and one wall was a dedicated bookshelf that had been filled with books. Parker still seeing no sign of Harry decided to move into the room to check if it had another exit. Once inside she looked around in confusion, the window was closed and locked from the inside and the only door was the one she'd been watching since Harry entered it.

"It's a nice room right?" Harry voice behind her shouldn't have startled her but it did causing her to jump and twirl around. She looked up at Harry before remembering that he read minds through the eyes and clamping hers tightly shut.

"Are you reading my mind right now?!" Parker demanded, her voice low and full of distrust. She heard a soft laugh in response.

"No, your eyes are closed. Here I'll put on sunglasses, it'll make you feel better." Harry's voice was soft and friendly. Parker slowly peek out of one eyelid to make out Harry's movements and he took out a pair of sunglasses and slid them over his eyes. Once they were one Parker slowly opened her own eyes.

"Does that stop you from reading my mind?" She asked curiously and frowned as Harry shook his head.

"Not really, but it makes it easier to avoid eye contact. Plus you'll be less aware of it happening so you won't have to worry about it so much." Parker slammed her eyes closed again.

"I don't want you to read my mind at all!"

"Look Parker, I'll do my best okay? But sometimes eye contact happens and when it does I'll know what you're thinking. I can't stop it and neither can you." Parker had always appreciated brutal honesty. She'd never understood why people felt the need to tiptoe around certain things. So despite her own discomfort she opened her eyes again.

"What about what you did to Hardison?" Parker asked eyeing the man in front of her.

"I would never do that without permission." Harry assured her but Parker narrowed her eyes.

"Hardison didn't give you permission."

"He did, not verbally but in his thoughts. Besides it would be much harder for me to make you do something. I've been inside Alec's head so often I know it as well as my own that makes it easy to plant thoughts and ideas that his mind won't reject."As Harry spoke he moved across the room to sit on the bed facing Parker. She followed his movements but remained standing stiffly as she examined him.

"Are you going to tell Hardison what I'm thinking?"Parker demanded voicing her worst fear since learning of Harry's gift.

"Certainly not, you needn't worry so much Parker!" Parker was not reassured however and continued to eye Harry warily.

"You told him what everyone was thinking earlier and what Sterling was thinking." Parker pointed out and Harry shrugged.

"That's different, Sterling's just some bloke. He wasn't my friend I would never do that to a friend." Harry spoke softly but Parker didn't find his words all that comforting.

"But I'm not your friend." She pointed out with a frown pulling her lips downward.

"You could be, Alec likes you anyway and I don't want you to be afraid of me. Besides I don't have many, people tend to be unsettled by me." Again it was the directness of Harry's approach that made Parker inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides she'd never really had a friend before. Sure her alias Alice had one friend but Parker never had one that knew who she really was. The team was different of course, they were all part of the team more like family than friends in Parker's eyes.

"If I'm your friend will you tell me what other people are thinking?" Parker's eyes flashed in anticipation.

"Sure, unless I think it will emotionally scar you." Was Harry's easy reply as a smile played around his lips.

"Okay," Parker started seriously "I accept your offer. We are now friends."

Author's notes: Sorry for the long delay on this update. I really hope you all love it! Please give me lots of reviews!