Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X or any of its characters.

Chapter 4

Jesse and Lexa looked around the room they had just walked into; it looked like you'd expect a government agency to look. There were desks with computers covering most of the room and people it was full of people. There were private offices around the room and at the opposite side from where they had just entered there was a staircase leading to an office elevated above everything else.

"Welcome to the operations floor, this way" Daniels led them through to a room at the back which was obviously some sort of briefing room. A man walked up to them and shook their hands "Mr. Kilmartin, Miss Pierce, I'm Director Colman, thank you Daniels I'll take it from here"

"Yes Sir" Daniels turned and left the room and Director Colman sat at the head of the briefing table and motioned for them to join him. After they took their seats the Director gave them an awkward smile.

"I'm sure you're eager to get back to your team mates and the quicker we get started the sooner that can happen, so I'll get straight to the point.

We are a top secret Organisation; we have many branches all over the world. This branch is one of the ones dedicated to keeping an eye on the Dominion. As I'm sure Daniels explained, when the Dominion's agenda became a dangerous one we began to take action against them. You two have been requested for your unique knowledge, skills and abilities. You will be assigned to Daniels team, your job will be research and field assignments, you will report to both myself and Daniels and are expected to follow orders. You will stay in this building at all times unless on a field assignment, we have quarters set up for you on the third floor. You'll also need these" he said as he handed them both cards with their pictures and details on

"These are your security cards, you must carry them with you at all times, most of the doors and the elevators have card readers. You have a level 3 security clearance, understand some of our employees who have been raised to be a part of this organisation only have a level 1 or 2, because of the nature of the work you'll be doing you have been granted a 3. Now I'll have Daniels escort you to your room so you can get settled in".

"Do you think they're okay?" Shalimar asked

"I'm sure they're fine" he said as he walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist. He was just as worried as Shalimar was though he did his best not to show it, Jesse and Lexa had already been gone several hours.

"I'm just worried about them" she said resting her head back against his chest and her arm over his.

"I know so am I but they're both strong, Jesse can protect them both and Lexa is her own personal weapon, they can take care of themselves and each other"

"Yeah I know"

"In the meantime" Adam said walking in "We need to continue our own fight against the Dominion, the faster they're destroyed the faster Jesse and Lexa can come home"

"I'm really worried about Lexa, she was really quiet before they left, she seemed to have gone into her own little world"

"She was probably just trying to take it all in"

"I guess so"

"Don't worry Shal" Brennan said as he kissed the top of her head "Jesse will look after, if something's bothering her he'll get it out of her"

Jesse watched as Lexa moved into their room, it had a small kitchen and TV area and there was an en suite bedroom to either side, it was like a small apartment. Jesse looked at Lexa again, he was worried about her, she had barely spoken since GIO turned up at Sanctuary and hadn't said a word since they left. He put their bags down and walked over to her.

"Lexa" he said as he put his hand on her arm and turned her to face him. He felt her stiffen at the contact and knew instantly that there was something very wrong, she hadn't reacted like that to him for weeks.

"Lexa what wrong?"

"Nothing Jess, I'm fine"

"Lexa don't do this, don't start shutting me out again, whatever it is you can tell me"

"It's just… I finally started to feel like I belonged like I was part of a family and then these guys show up and tear it all away from me. Every time I have something I care about it, something I love it gets destroyed and I can't do it anymore Jesse, I can't"

Tears had come to Lexa's eyes as she has been speaking and Jesse pulled her to him and held her tightly.

"Lexa listen to me you are part of a family now and this isn't forever, once we stop the Dominion and we will, we can go home" He pulled back so he could look her in the eyes "And I'm not going anywhere, I'll be with you all the way, Okay? I love you"

Lexa seemed to have calmed down, she smiled and nodded her head and smiled "I love you too Jesse"

He smiled back at her and kissed her gently "Let's get unpacked"

An hour later Jesse and Lexa were escorted back down to the Operations floor by Daniels. He led them to two empty desks facing each other.

"These will be your workstations and this" he handed them a file "contains your login IDs and passwords, put them through the shredder when you've finished with them. I'm sure you'll have no problem figuring out our system but if you do feel free to ask anyone on my team for help. Now if you'll just follow me, my team has gathered in the briefing room and are waiting to meet you"

They followed Daniels back into the briefing room where 7 people stood waiting for them.

"Okay everyone this is Jesse Kilmartin and Lexa Pierce and this is my team. The field personnel are Andrew Jacobs, Lindsey Mathews, Jason Parker, Kyle Philips and Mike Walker" he said gesturing to each member of the team in turn. "Claudia Green and Joey Evans are our computer specialists; they stay here at headquarters or in mission vans and give us technical support"

Jesse and Lexa shook hands with the team and they spent the next hour going over the rules and protocols.

"Well, you two have had a long day why don't you go and get some sleep and we can get started in the morning"

""Okay"

"Do you know you're way back to your quarters?"

"Yeah"

They stood up and left the rest of the team talking in the briefing room and headed through the operations floor and back to their room. Once back in their room Lexa immediately sat down on the sofa ad Jesse sat next to her and pulled her to him. Lexa rested her head against his chest and he was happy to find she didn't tense up at the action. They sat that way for several minutes as they were both lost in their own thoughts.

"You tired?" Jesse finally asked.

"Exhausted, but I'm actually more hungry than anything else. I haven't eaten since before we left sanctuary"

"Well then" Jesse said standing up and moving over to the kitchen area "Lets see if our new friends were kind enough to put any food in to this kitchen". Jesse opened up a cupboard to find there was plenty of food and rooting through the rest of the kitchen he decided he was too tired to cook anything too complicated and decided to make them both Mac and cheese.

Later when they had both eaten they got into bed and Lexa curled up next to Jesse, she fell asleep quickly in his arms. Jesse smiled and planted a gentle kiss on her head before falling to sleep too.

"It's too damn quiet"

"Shal calm down"

"I miss them Brennan, I know they've been gone less than a day but I miss them. Sanctuary feels empty, Jesse's not clicking away at the computer and me and Lexa were going to watch a film tonight"

"What film?"

"It doesn't matter, it finished over an hour ago"

"Where's Adam?"

"In the lab, I think he's missing them as much as we are" Shal opened her fist and looked at Jesse's and Lexa's comm. Links, they had been told to remove them before they left sanctuary and Shalimar had been carrying them with her ever since.

"Come on it been a long day, lets go to bed"

Shalimar nodded and went with Brennan to their room, well technically it was his room but she had slept in it every night since they had arrived and most of her stuff was in there anyway. She curled in Brennan's arms and drifted to sleep.