Samuel Braddock regretted slapping his wife.
Not because he was kicked out.
Not because he spent the next few days living in the office, before handing in his resignation.
But because he truly loved Rowena.
Sam had wished so hard over the years that he didn't have Radiation. It was pretty bad when every time you lost your temper you injured, and/or killed people without even lifting a finger, and Sam lost his temper a lot. In the end, he tricked a telepath into blocking off his power, and disappeared.
Everything had been going fine. He met, and fell in love with a beautiful woman, and they married and had a family. Although Sam knew that his alien genes would pass on, hybrids didn't always get powers, and his was blocked off. And thus Sam successfully denied himself the possibility that his children would have powers, flawed though his logic was.
Oliver was so much like him. Losing his temper, and fires burning in rage because of it. He knew he should try to help him learn to control his power, but he had never figured it out himself, so how could he teach his son? Sam felt if he denied there was a problem, it would just go away.
Then Leroy showed up and Sam knew it would be the end of it.
He didn't blame Oliver for running away. And while he was angry at Miette for her involvement with YIRAAS, he knew he was really angry at himself.
So now he was in America, trying to figure things out. His choice to go to America was neither random, nor chance. It was strategically decided. His power was radiation, and that's what was poisoning - and still poisoning - Kansas.
He took a job as an architech in a firm close to the Kansas border. He ingrained himself with the borderguards, and engineeres who were trying to clean up the mess, and strove to learn all he could.
Then, one morning Sam woke up. He got out of bed, and went to the bathroom for his usual morning ritual. As he looked in the mirror for his shave, he stared at his reflection, and knew.
What limited exposure he had to the Kansas border has taken its toll. But instead of mutating, the telepathic block was degrading, and his power was starting to return.
"Well Sam," he said to himself. "This is the time - the best time - you're ever going to have to control your power. Now, while its strength is still weak."