This is another adventure I've decided to take and will be the LAST new one for quite some time, but enjoy. Let Me Down Easy is coming to a close soon, so the timing seemed right. Welcome to A Safe Place by yours truly. The plot of this is very loosely based off of CBS Scorpion and the life of Walter O'Brien. Enjoy! -J3

They were a mismatched, haphazard bunch. Three men and a lone lady that couldn't find their place—apart from with each other.

Venser was a mathematical genius, a human calculator if you will. A monster intelligence quotient of one hundred and seventy-four, he was an asset to their team. Scared of everything from germs to heights, Jace had found him after he'd been kicked out of Dartmouth, before that Harvard, and prior to that, Cornell. Rejected by the Ivy League professors and researchers because he was flat-out smarter than they were. They did not appreciate being outsmarted by a child, because that's all he was at that point. Upon his acceptance at Cornell, Venser was fifteen years old. Sixteen at Harvard and a mere eighteen at Dartmouth. A statistician of the highest order, a mathematician like no eyes had ever seen before. If it could be solved, Venser could solve it. Jace had helped him achieve a doctorate in both statistics and calculus. Venser was loyal to Jace to a fault, just like they all were.

Jace was the reason they were here, after all.

And then there was Kaalia. The redheaded bombshell who was as smart as she was beautiful. She had beauty and brains, which only helped her with her role for the team. Kaalia who refused to tell anyone about her past, Kaalia who could read humans like Webster's dictionary. Her IQ was nothing to be quibbled over, either. She soared off the charts at one hundred and eighty-one. Jace had found her at her lowest, when she was stuck at the bottom of a bottle after losing her fourth job in the year. Kaalia was what they called a behaviorist—smarter than Skinner and Pavlov put together. She thought herself invincible, that she could manipulate her way out of any situation put in front of her. Most of the time, she could. She knew when people were taking advantage of Jace's kindness or Venser's fears. She worked as a profiler, a therapist, and got banned at every casino in Atlantic City—because she knew when to bet and when to hold. Kaalia took walls that humans created and turned them to dust. With the exception of one person, one man. Which brings us to the fourth part of the team.

Josu. Josu Vess was a mechanical prodigy with the fifth highest IQ ever recorded: one hundred and eighty-four. Josu could fix anything that moved; he could create anything to any certain specifications. He invented an engine that ran on nothing but pure water—and for that reason, he had to go to ground. The moguls of the oil industry wanted nothing more than Josu's head on a platter. Nearly six-and-a-half feet tall with a ponytail going halfway down his back, he was the perfect match of brains and brawn. Like all of them, he had his faults. Josu's sister was his downfall. His twin sister, Liliana, was kidnapped at sixteen. His obsession is finding her. He "knows" she's still alive, he said he can feel it in his bones. While Jace doesn't understand twin bonds, he knows they exist and helps Josu as much as he can. Josu has a secret that he thinks no one knows, but shortly after Liliana was kidnapped, he tried to commit suicide by wrapping his car around a powerline. He shattered his right leg and just is getting his walk back to normal. The pain pills are always in his back pocket. Jace knew that if they could find his sister, it would be one step closer to getting his best friend back to normal.

Jace is the head of this team. He had the second highest Intellegence Quotient that's ever been seen. Jace's IQ was 197. He could be in the computer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with nothing more than a few keystrokes. In fact, he did so at age seven because he wanted the blueprints of a shuttle that they were building. That's how he met Sorin.

Sorin was a federal agent who worked on a secret taskforce to bring down any type of criminal- terrorists, both foreign and domestic, murderers, traitors, you name it. If no one else could solve it, you could bet that Sorin could. Sorin needed their help now, because he had been pushed out of the Quantico office of the FBI into some po-dunk town in New Jersey. Sorin had been there with his wife for two weeks, completely miserable when Avacyn approached him with some news that could be the break he needed.

"Jace contacted me today," she said, her singsong voice was always the light of Sorin's life.

"Really? I thought he was done- after the debacle with Kallist, the broken promise with Emmara.."

"He and his team think that they could help you."

"Team? Since when does Jace have a 'team,' Avacyn?"

"I don't know, but you should go see what he wants, because I know you are suspended in your own misery and I hate seeing you this way. It's not fair to Aloria and Lucien. They want their father back. And Sorin, well Jace told me something else."

"And what was that," he said, kissing his wife's hand.

"Kaalia, she's on the team too. Though he doesn't know that she's yours."

"Kaalia- our daughter Kaalia?"

Mrs. Markov had just nodded.

Kaalia was the product of a torrid affair, months before Avacyn. Olivia Voldaren had put her on Sorin's front steps when she was merely three days old. Sorin had been at work, naturally. Avacyn went to get her mail and there was a sleeping bundle on her front steps. Sorin never understood how to care for her- but damn it did he try. He wanted his daughter back- and this oppurtunity seemed to good to be true. He had a chance to reconnect with Kaalia and to regain some sembelence of respect at the Bureau.

What Sorin didn't know is that Kaalia had lost contact with her family because she just knew that she would be their biggest disappointment, so she found solace with people who are just like her.

Sorin Markov didn't know that the reason that Kaalia had lost contact with her parents and her beloved siblings is because she knew that she was her father's biggest disappointment. She thought that he had never wanted her, that she was nothing but a ghost from his past that haunted him both night and day. Kaalia loved Sorin, Avacyn, and the twins more than her own life, but by distancing herself, she could no longer hurt them. Sorin just wanted his child back, his old job back, and it seemed he had a chance. He sipped the tea, just mulling it all over.

But when would he stop owing Jace Beleren?

Sorin had tasked Jace, over Skype of course, to get his team ready for the government overhaul. Jace was driving to "work," if one could call it that. Their headquarters was a dimly lit warehouse that some how had survived the hurricane. Josu had gotten up early and went to therapy, leaving him in their apartment alone. The three bedroom apartment that Josu had insisted on getting, because "Jace, she's going to come back. She will." Jace had simply nodded, his thoughts first of Kallist and then of Emmara. He couldn't bring himself to take away Josu's only sliver of hope. Just as Jace still relentlessly researched, doctors, new medicines, everything. He could still hear Emmara's voice, soft, yet resolute, in his head. This isn't your fight, Jace. It's mine. Please take care of yourself, bubba. I can't lose you both.

That's how he felt too. His "Emmy" had always protected her brothers. Kallist just went and got himself slaughtered; Jace couldn't help but think he had something to do with it. If he could take that day back, just that one day, it would change everything. Jace and Josu had grew close over a common bond. They could be brothers now, too. Emmara had even taking to nagging Josu about, well, everything. Same with Jace's mother. They had seen that he had no family that was present, so they took him into theirs.

Jace pulled into the parking lot and everyone was here. Kaalia's SUV, Josu's bike. Venser, terrified of the road, always rode with either Kaalia or Jace. However, a black and purple Mustang pulled up, spinning the gravel of the drive to the warehouse. It was one of the two thousand models, squared off body shape. Jace stood, frozen. Who could this possibly be? No one knew the location, not even Sorin, yet. She's probably lost, Jace had thought to himself. Her eyes looked like they had seen horrors, but they were the most vibrant shade of green Jace had ever seen. Her long, black hair hit her waist and she had on a simple shirt that had a raven on it. The skinny jeans accentuated her hips. She looked underfed but she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Jace had found it hard not to stare. He tried to smile, forgetting that his mouth was full of apple juice. Now, his front was covered in it. Great, he had thought. His only solace was that he'd probably never see the beautiful girl again. Josu could give her directions. Quickly, he averted his eyes and walked into the warehouse. No one looked up from their work, Jace was always the last one in.

"Guys, the prettiest girl I have ever seen in my life is outside." Josu's ears perked up, of course. He was the ladies man. "She's in a black and purple Mustang and has long black hair. She's pale. She's probably lost-" but he didn't get to finish. Josu was a blur of grease and ponytail as he blew by Jace to get outside. Spooked, Jace wrenches the door open.

"OSU!"

"Liliana!"