To Love a Part of You

Chapter One

*Click Click Click* Adam is typing on his keyboard searching Proxy Blue to make sure nothing is suspicious. Adam has been concerned since nothing has been happening at Genomex lately.

"Incoming Message" The computer stated as an automated message showed on the screen. Adam lifted an eyebrow wondering what it could be. Suddenly Mason Eckhart's pale face showed up on the screen.

"Hello Adam", Eckhart said to his adversary. "I have a proposition for you."

Adam stared at the screen with both a sense of curiosity loathing towards his old friend. Adam wondered what Eckhart would have up his sleeve this time.

"And that would be?" Adam asked sitting back in his chair knowing that Eckhart couldn't hear him. Adam was a genius, but it didn't mean he didn't have habits like any other person. ~* Mason, why did you have to go against us?*~ Adam asked himself for the thousandth time, but he already knew the answer. The message continued.

"I have created a new, how shall we say, 'experiment'." Eckhart let his last word sink in. He really had his attention now. ~* Why would he be doing anther experiment? He only likes new mutants if they work for him, but that would mean... no*~

"Meet me at the parking lot outside the warehouse on 25th street, or else you won't get to meet them. Come alone." And with that Eckhart's message ended.

Now Adam was a little alarmed. ~*Meet them? He has already started whatever sick minded experiment he has?!*~ Adam immediately left to the warehouse Eckhart had directed him too, not bothering to tell his team where he was going, knowing that if they interfered, Eckhart's experiment could be in jeopardy.

*

Adam drove the Mustang into the parking lot and stood beside his car. Eckhart wasn't there yet, he always did like to make an entrance. Moments later three black GSA vehicle drove up in front of Adam. Eckhart stepped out of the largest vehicle.

"Nice to see you received my message Adam." Eckhart told Adam in such a way it made Adam feel like giving him a good smacking.

"Let's get to the point Mason, what was your proposal?" Adam asked, hoping to see what he is up to sooner, to help whoever was his victim this time.

"Just to think, last time we had a conversation like this we worked together to battle that virus that infected your monstrosities." Eckhart said with a tone of disgust.

"That's where it gets interesting Mason, you see, you don't seem to mind them as much when they are working for you." Adam retorted, hating the way he calls his children monstrosities. Eckhart laughed.

"Well I do believe you have me there Adam." Eckhart was enjoying this, Adam felt it.

"Mason was there a point to coming here?" Adam asked successfully bursting his joyful bubble.

"Well actually yes Adam. You see my experiment is perfect except for the fact that I can't fully correct its DNA completely, I need your expertise. I am trying to make a double of someone, an exact replica that will work for me." Eckhart said with a business look on his face.

"And what makes you think I will help you?"

"Don't be too hasty Adam. You see, my experiment has two purposes; one is to infiltrate the government, and the other, to destroy Mutant X."

"There is no way on this Earth I will help you with this so called 'experiment' Mason, so whichever agent who opted for this 'assignment', will just have to keep their own genetic code." Adam said determinedly

Eckhart looks at Adam and stares into his face, he is stronger than he thought.

"It's a little too late for this 'agent' Adam," From behind his long trench coat, Eckhart held the hand of a little girl and brought her in front of him. The little girl who stood between the two men had deep, blood red hair and a fair complexion, with blue eyes. She must have been just under four years old.

Eckhart knelt down with his hands on the shoulder of the little girl who starred straight into Adam's eyes.

"Adam, this is Jayla. Jayla, this is your grandfather, Adam." Eckhart said as the little girl walked up to Adam.

"What to do mean grandfather?" Adam asked not looking at Eckhart, but the girl who began to play with his hands.

"Well Adam, since you call you creation you children this one would be your granddaughter for she is the daughter on your children." Eckhart said

Adam's attention snapped towards Eckhart, "You stole her from her family?"

"Quite on the contrary, she would never have been alive if it weren't for me. I simply used your mutant's DNA. When I decided to do this, I had to use some DNA and I just stumbled upon some of your mutants DNA."

"Who's DNA?" Adam was now getting disturbed. Eckhart could have created something he couldn't control. Hadn't he learned the first time?

"Since you refuse to help with her genetic code," Eckhart paused to look at Jayla hugging Adam's leg, "she won't survive, and you will be responsible for her death, Adam."

"She has already survived, what, just less than four years? What makes you think she won't survive longer?"

"Adam, I'm surprised. Did you really think I would have the patience to wait for her to grow up? Jayla is only a month old." Mason stopped to see the look on Adam's face, "She has exhilarated growth."

Adam picked the little blue-eyed girl and held her in his arms. She gazed straight into Adam's brown eyes, and flashed her eyes yellow.

"She's feral." Adam stated.

"Oh she is much more than that. She is also psionic, elemental, and molecular." Eckhart said with a grin.

"You don't know what you are doing Mason, she can't grow up to live a life like this." Adam looked into Jayla's eyes and said in his mind ~*I won't loose you*~

"Jayla come here" Eckhart called to her. The little girl just kept on hugging Adam. "Jayla come here immediately" Eckhart said in a more demanding voice. Adam wouldn't put her down, and the little girl phased through his arms and slowly walked back to Eckhart. Eckhart led the Jayla to a GS agent who put her in the back seat of the car and closed the door.

"Jayla ages 3.5 years per month. Without your help Adam, her growth is unstable and so is her genetic code." Eckhart turned and opened the door to his car, "Oh, and the answer to your previous question, your team is to thank for her gifts, she is their daughter." And with that Eckhart closed his door and all three cars drove away.

The decision Adam made was one of the hardest he ever would make. He couldn't tell his team that they had a daughter; it was too much of a liability into creating something to be controlled by Eckhart, he would have to let her go.

Chapter Two

Four Months Later

Emma slowly crept into Adam's office with Jesse close behind. He had fallen asleep in his research again.

"He can't keep doing this, it isn't healthy for him." Emma whispered to Jesse as they looked at their fatherly figure asleep on top of a file.

"We have to get him to his own bed." Jesse explained as he moved closer to Adam.

Emma nodded and prodded Adam awake. When Adam opened his eyes his vision was blurry and he was very drowsy. Adam sat back and rubbed his eyes.

"Wha... what's happening? What I miss?" Adam asked in a daze.

"Your bed, common, you..." Jesse said as he half carried Adam to his bedroom," are... going to get some real sleep."

"No, I'm fine, really..."

"Yeah we believe that" Emma said directing Adam where to go since he was almost asleep again.

They successfully put him in his room and walked back into his office.

"He can't keep doing that to himself Jesse. What could be so important that he has been working on these past few months?" Emma asked her teammate.

Jesse looked at Emma and then to Adam's computer. Adam would never let Jesse see what he was working on, but this time he forgot to shut off his computer. Jesse smiled, "Well there's always one way to find out." Jesse nodded towards the computer.

"Good thinking" Emma stood behind Jesse as he typed on the computer.

Jesse searched through the file name and scanned the information. Inside there were four DNA strands and different equations on the pages. Jesse didn't see anything interesting until he came across a name.

"Wait, who's this?" Jesse furrowed his brow as he looked at the name.

"Who's Jayla?" Emma asked in curiosity.

"Let's find out. I'll check the database and see what we have on her." Jesse said without tearing his eyes away from the computer. The monitor tore through hundreds of names and pictures in seconds. Jesse and Emma just starred at the screen.

"Watcha up to?" A voice asked from behind the two. They both jumped. It was Shalimar. She always managed to enter the room silently because her catlike mannerisms.

"You know you shouldn't be looking on Adam's computer." She told them smiling at the fact that she scared them.

"Yeesh Shalimar, can you give us some warning next time?" Jesse said taking a deep breath.

"Well sorry Jess, didn't know you got scared so easily." Shalimar said smiling, "I just wanted to tell you two that breakfast should be ready soon so you should come to the kitchen." The two of them stood up and walked down the hall towards the kitchen where they could smell bacon.

When the two entered the kitchen, Shalimar was starring over Brennan's shoulder looking at the bacon with her mouth watering.

"Just wait a second Shalimar, it'll be done in a second" Brennan said trying to block her from the stove top where he was trying to cook. Brennan was wearing a white apron around him and Shalimar kept tugging at it.

"Mmmm, smells good." Emma said as Brennan turned around. Jesse started laughing.

"What are you wearing man?" Jesse couldn't help but smile, it was one of the few times he has seen Brennan look the slightest it out of style.

"Well you don't expect me to get my shirt all greasy do you?" Brennan retorted. Jesse just grinned afterwards, looking back at him every once in a while.

Slowly Adam walked in rubbing his eyes," What's for breakfast?" He yawned. All four heads turned towards him. Adam looked as if he hadn't slept in days. He had bags under his bloodshot eyes.

"I thought you guys put him in bed." Brennan said glaring over at Jesse.

"We did, but you know him, he never can stay down." Jesse said as Adam sat beside him. Shalimar had finally received her plate of food that she had been anxiously waiting for and looked from it to Adam. She had made a difficult choice but finally set the plate in front of Adam.

"Oh thank you Shalimar" He said, knowing that it took a lot for her to do that. "The one thing that can wake me up, Brennan's cooking." He said sarcastically.

"How come it's always me that gets picked on? Why don't you ever go for Jesse?" Brennan whined.

"Because everyone loves me too much Brennan" Jesse grinned at him.

"We love you Jesse" Emma said as she grabbed the plate that sat untouched in front of Jesse," But not that much." Emma put a great big piece of egg and toast in her mouth. Jesse frowned. Everyone laughed aloud at the expression on Jesse's face.
*

Brennan and Shalimar were working out in the Dojo, and Jesse and Emma were running the simulations for them when Adam came up the stairs with a solemn look on his face. They all stopped and turned to look at him.

"I got some bad news guys" He said as he sighed," I'm just going to have to give you the night off" After he said 'off' he let out a smile.

"YES!!!" Emma said in unison with Shalimar as they both ran up and gave Adam a kiss on each cheek and went together to pick out what they were going to wear that evening. Both Jesse and Brennan both gave thanks to Adam and went down to their rooms as well.

~* Good, this will give me more time to work on my research.*~ Adam thought as he walked away into his office and began typing on the computer again.

*

"That looks perfect on you Emma!" Shalimar smiled as she had her best friend turn around to make sure everything was perfect. Shalimar had picked out a beige shirt for her with ruffles down the front, and some black pants with sparkles on them.

"Now you turn around so I can see." Shalimar did what her friend asked and showed off her outfit. Shalimar was wearing a black shirt with a higher collar, and some dark denim jeans.

"Perfect" Emma smiled to her.

They both walked out of the room and into the living room where Jesse and Brennan were waiting. Jesse's jaw dropped when he saw Emma in her outfit. Brennan whistled at the site of Shalimar.

"So what are we waiting for?" Emma asked as she took Jesse's hand and started for the door. They all yelled goodbye to Adam and left for the dance club.
*

"Come on, let's dance." Shalimar grabs Brennan's hand and drags him onto the dance floor. Brennan didn't put up much of a fight. Jesse and Emma ordered drinks and sat at a booth talking.

"I've been getting a strange vibe from Adam lately, what do you thinks going on?" Emma asked Jesse taking a drink from her daiquiri.

"I don't know, but he's definitely hiding something, even I can see that."

Emma laughed," Well that not saying much now is that?" Jesse simply scowled and laughed along with her.

Shalimar and Brennan came from the dance floor and asked what they got them for drinks.

"We got a beer and a cocktail, take your pick." Brennan automatically went for the beer as Shalimar dove for the cocktail. Jesse stood out of the seat and turned to Emma.

"How about a dance?" Jesse asked as Emma took his outstretched hand. Jesse led her to the dance floor as a ballad came on.

As Brennan and Shalimar watched from a distance, Shalimar observed how her two younger teammates were dancing. She noticed that Jesse and Emma now were not just friends, but a couple now.

"Don't they make the cute couple?" Shalimar asked nudging Brennan.

"Please, don't remind me." Brennan groaned.

"Oh, is somebody jealous?" Shalimar teased.

"You know I see her as a little sister, I just don't want to see her get hurt." Brennan said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"You know Jesse would never break her heart, he loves her too much." Shalimar had known Jesse almost all of her life; she knew he cared for her more than he said.

After a while Jesse and Emma came back to the booth to have some more drinks and to take a break. They both sat down and Brennan starred at Jesse, thinking if what Shalimar said was true, that Jesse would never break her heart.

Jesse felt Brennan's intense stare and looked at him.

"What?" Jesse asked innocently. This broke Brennan out of his trance.

"Nothing" Brennan muttered. Jesse just gave him a curious look.

"It feels so good to have the night off." Shalimar said as she stretched her arms showing how relaxed she was.

"Yeah, Adam has been us on call for so long, and nothing has happened." Emma said expressing her irritation with Adam.

"It's like he's waiting for something, it's weird." Jesse said thinking about Adam's computer again.

They left off the topic and started talking about past missions and what they had planned for the next few days. It was finally around 11:30 when they decided to head back, they didn't know what Adam would have planned for them the next day.

As the four left the club, they walked into an alley between two buildings as Brennan suggested it was closer to where they had parked the car. As they walked Shalimar and Emma strolled behind the two men while all four of them said their highlights of the evening. As Jesse commented on how jealous Brennan looked as about 10 different guys asked Shalimar to dance. They all stopped as Brennan argued his case.

"I was not jealous!"

"Oh come on Bren, you should have seen he look on your face" Jesse said with a slight grin. The two were facing each other with Emma and Shalimar enjoying seeing the two duels in words.

At that moment a girl whipped around the corner and ran right into the back of Jesse. Jesse hardly moved at the force of her body colliding with his, but the girl fell backwards hitting her head on the cement sidewalk.

Jesse turned around to see what had hit him. To his surprise there was a teenager, roughly 14 years old with dark red hair on the ground rubbing her head in a daze.

Brennan put out his hand to help the blue eyed redhead up.

"Whoa slow down there kid. You don't want to..." Brennan trailed off as he saw the terrified look on her pale face. She was wearing a black long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans that made the focus on to her face. Her eyes were so blue they looked unnatural. The other three looked at the girl as shook the pain off and turned around to look at the direction she just came from.

"Over here! She's over here!" A man yelled who was wearing a black suit. Nine other men wearing the same outfit came around the corner. They were GS agents

Two pulled out guns and started firing. As Jesse massed, Brennan tried to pull the kid down but she turned to block him and suddenly massed beside Jesse. The agents ran out of bullets and through their guns aside.

The teenager unmassed and continued running. The agents followed her in pursuit and cornered her. The Mutant X team raced into action taking on the few agents that had stood back blocking one of the exits.

The girl looked at the three agents cornering her and took a step towards them, making them take a step back. As her eyes flared yellow she turned and ran up the wall doing a back flip land on top two of the agents, and jumping at the third.

Mutant X was holding their own, these were tougher agents than they usually had to face.

Shalimar was turning and kicking this one canine feral when she saw an agent fire a psionic blast at the girl.

"Kid! Duck!" Shalimar yelled.

She turned to see it coming towards her. She didn't duck, but shot her own psionic blast towards the one coming towards her. The two fought for who would win. The energy between them forced them into the air. Everyone stopped and starred at the situation happening before them. This was a full grown man battling a teen, and the girl was forcing him back.

During this, one of the GSA shot a ball of fire towards the girl which broke their connection as she screamed falling twelve feet down and landing on her side.

All four of the Mutant X team was busy fighting off the agents who went for them. Two agents walked up to the injured girl struggling to sit up. One agent held a subdermal governor in one of his hands. She managed to put a hand up and shot electricity to him. The agent flew back and fell unconscious. The second agent continued towards her until he stood directly above her.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk. You have caused a lot of trouble young lady." The GS agent stated as he forcefully kicked in her stomach.

"Now you have to be punished." He continued pulling his leg back to kick her again. At that moment Jesse interceded and dove at the man. With a few punches he was out cold. Jesse pulled her up, took her left hand and ran towards the car with her.

"We need reinforcements quick!" A GS agent yelled in his communicator. Emma swiftly hit him with a psionic blast which rendered him unconscious.

"Jess," She said into her comring," We could use some transportation right about now." Jesse put the young girl in the back seat and sped towards the alley. Emma and Brennan jumped in the back and Shalimar in the front seat.

"Well that was fun" Shalimar said as she brushed the dirt off of her.

"What's your name kid?" Jesse asked still keeping his eyes on the road; it was dangerous to look away when he was driving so fast.

"Jayla" She said slowly blinking to look at each of them.

"You okay kid? I mean, you put up a heck of a fight." Brennan asked Jayla. She looked towards Brennan her face glazing over. They could see she was trying to focus on his face, but she couldn't. She looked down at her hand and blood started slipping down it.

"Oh my god, Brennan, her arm!" Emma gasped. Brennan looked down at her arm. Where he had thought there was a black sleeve was just some burnt material, her arm was scorched. Her head slowly started to hang.

"Kid, Jayla, no don't close your eyes. Look at me Jayla, Jayla?" Brennan tried to keep her conscious but it was no use.

"Adam, prep the lab, we have a 14 year old girl and she's taken quite a beating." Emma called into her comring.

*

Brennan raced into the lab with Jayla in his arms. The other three weren't far behind. Brennan placed her on the chair for a complete scan as Adam said.

"What's her name?" Adam asked all four of them

"She said it was Jayla" Jesse answered him, suddenly remembering the name on Adam's file. Adam's stare lingered on Jesse for a moment and then went back to the unconscious Jayla.

Adam ushered the team out and continued to fix Jayla up.
*
An Hour Later

Brennan was sitting on the couch reading poetry; Emma was reading a magazine, Jesse sat beside Emma drinking a cup of coffee, and Shalimar laid down with her head on Brennan's lap.

"So who do you think she is?" Shalimar asked, breaking the silence. Both Emma and Brennan put down their reading material.

"I don't know. I never knew there were anymore like Ashlocke. You know, with all four capabilities." Jesse said wrapping his arm around Emma.

"At her age too, having to deal with the GSA, I wonder who her parents are." Brennan asked curiously.

Shalimar thought, something about her kept getting to her, rubbing her not the wrong way, but not the right way either.

"She seems familiar for some reason, I don't know why..." Shalimar said trying to remember how she could have known her.

Brennan looked down to see the expression on Shalimar's face when she was thinking, apparently hard.

"She never came up on the database though, so no one has run into her before the GSA..." Emma trailed off into thought.

"Adam was acting kind of weird though when we brought her in, I wonder if this has anything to do with what he has been working over these past weeks." Jesse added, forgetting that he hadn't told Brennan about the computer.

"Yeah by the way Jess, thanks a lot for telling me about Adam's open file on his computer. Does Emma have to tell me everything?" Brennan asked him a bit annoyed. Jesse was about to retort when Emma cut in.

"Down boys. Hey Shal, you ok?" Emma was feeling some mixed emotions from Shalimar.

"Yeah I'm fine." Shalimar said leaving Brennan's lap. Unexpectedly Shalimar's ears perked up. Adam came around the corner. Adam put his hand through his hair and sighed.

"How am I going to put this?" He muttered. The rest of his team starred at him intently. Emma sensed there was more to this than met the eye.

"I guess I better start at the beginning. Your probably wondering why Jayla isn't on the database." Adam paused seeing their heads bob up and down nodding." That is because I never put her on the database. I had only found only found out about her four months ago. She is your daughter." Adam said

Everyone starred at Adam.

"Umm, Adam, who's daughter?" Emma asked. Slowly, Jesse, Emma, and Shalimar's glances slid over to Brennan. He had already had one encounter with being a parent.

"What is everyone looking at me for?" Brennan put his hands up remembering his encounter with Becky and her son Connor." Whoa, that was not my fault!"

Adam shook his head. ~*this is going to be difficult*~

"No, it isn't just Brennan's child, it's all of yours." Adam could see the confused looks on their faces.

"What do you mean all of us are parents? That's not possible." Jesse said folding his arms. Adam explained how four months ago Eckhart made a proposition for him that he had to refuse which meant that Jayla would most likely die. He told how he kept the research up since it was so quiet over at Genomex; something had to be going on. Adam finally came to the part where Eckhart explained that she was made by all four of their DNA, she was biologically their child.

"How do you know that Eckhart didn't just say that and she is some other people's kid with all four abilities?" Emma asked; this was too big to take in at one time.

"I confirmed it when I took her blood sample. Her DNA code is all four of yours."

Brennan was now getting angry," Why didn't you tell us when you went to meet Eckhart, she never would have had to go through in living with Eckhart!"

"Brennan, calm down. It was too big of a risk." Adam said but the exasperation in his voice showed through.

"So what do you mean, we have a kid now? Are we going to place her with some foster parents or what are we going to do?" Jesse asked Adam in a confused voice.

"How can you say something like that Jesse?!" Shalimar growled," We are going to keep her!" Shalimar's eye flared gold and then went back.

Emma was being so over whelmed with emotions, she felt dizzy. After everyone settled down, Adam continued to speak.

"We are going to keep her for now. We need to know what caused her to run away from the Genomex, and the only thing we can do is wait. She will be out for another twelve hours, it is already 12:30 so try and get some rest."

The four filed down the hallway. As soon as they were out of sight from Adam Brennan grinned," It is going to be cool having a kid now."

Jesse looked at Brennan," Fun? What are we going to do with a kid in Sanctuary?"

"For one, she is not a little kid, she is 14 years old! And second we are going to take care of her." Shalimar said to Jesse smiling.

Emma stopped, something was bugging her," How can she be fourteen already?"

"Probably exhilarated growth." Jesse answered her. The whole time they talked of what they are going to do now being parents and how they are going to teach Jayla everything.