He used to work at a utilities company in Atlanta.  He was on call when the lights went out in Georga (I could not resist) due to Lightnings grounding of the system.  Several months later he still needed sleeping pills to get to sleep.

One day, these pills, from Razor's Edge, had a side effect.  In his sleep, he dreamed that he could fly.  He got up, still asleep, walked to his 10th floor apartment window, and jumped out!

When he woke up, he was somewhere over Kansas.  Startled, he forgot to fly.  On the way down, he was startled by a goose that he fell into.  He was startled so much by this that he forgot that he was falling.  As such, he stopped.  (Funny huh, but who was more startled, him or the goose?)

From then on, he just drifted, not really looking where he was going.  He wound up in the Colorado Rockies near the compound operated by Save Our Children.

Since he was here, and he knew that the 12 year old Lightning was brought here, he decided to visit.  When the facility noticed that Lightning's electrical outbursts didn't happen when she was near him, they offered him a job as handyman, electrician, and a safe area for Lightning to release her energy.  He accepted.

When she graduated, and was assigned to this unit, he was also asked to join.  Which he did.