Endings or Beginnings

Shalimar was slowly waking up from her sleep and instantly noticed that she was still, unfortunately, in the building. Only now, she was in a lab. Well, shit, Shalimar groaned. She was strapped down with chains on a freezing metal table with knife-happy 'surgeons' all around her. Kayley, Shalimar clenched her teeth. That bitch!

"Wake up sleepy head." Kayley taunted her.

"What are you doing back here?" Shalimar growled.

"I thought I'd like to come and watch you die." Kayley answered, but Shalimar could see she was hiding something.

"What happened? Brennan not quite so attracted to you as you thought?" Shalimar smirked, but unexpectedly Kayley smiled back.

"On the contrary, Brennan's quite the athlete in bed, but you wouldn't know, would you?" Kayley smiled. Shalimar felt a sharp pain in her chest. Heartbreak.

"You're lying!" Shalimar shouted and Kayley could see that she touched a nerve.

"Ask him yourself." She replied, then looking at her chains. "Oh right, you can't." Then, turning to Mr. Fromall she said. "Go ahead." Mr. Fromall and his surgeons walked towards Shalimar, looking a little too keen to cut into her.

"Brennan and I will miss you, but I'm sure, in time, we'll manage." Kayley laughed and left the room. The surgeon closest to her walked up to her with an injector, no doubt more of the sleepy stuff she had experienced earlier, although this time she doubted she'd wake up.

"Goodbye Ms. Fox." Said Mr. Fromall and she screamed as the liquid was injected into her skin.

"Shal!" Brennan shouted as he ran into the building where he had heard her scream.

"Brennan!" Jesse called and ran in after Brennan. Brennan opened the door into the building and ran to the stairs, following Shalimar's screams, which seemed to be dying down. Jesse was still behind Brennan, but getting tired and had to pause for a few minutes, but Brennan hardly noticed. The final scream concluded where Shalimar was and busted open a door, seeing an unconscious Shalimar and half a dozen surgeons. One surgeon had already cut deep into Shalimar's stomach and her blood was smothered all over her and the hands of the surgeon.

"You bastards!" Brennan whispered and hit each surgeon, including Mr. Fromall, with the highest voltage electricity blast he'd ever done; which was sure to knock all of them into a coma if not killed them. He ran over to Shalimar and found a very faint pulse.

"Thank god." He muttered. Jesse came running through the door, looking at all the unconscious guys on the floor.

"Did I miss much?" Jesse asked sarcastically, but Brennan just ignored him.

"Come on. Shalimar's not looking so good and if we don't get her back to Sanctuary now, she could die." Brennan said, picking Shalimar up and carrying her out rapidly. Jesse looked at Shalimar's bruised and bloody body and felt sick.

"Oh crap." Turning his attention back to Brennan. "I doubt Kayley just disappeared. I think she may come back." Jesse said.

"Maybe, but let's worry about that later." Brennan said, once again taking lead to the Helix.

"You shouldn't worry so much Jess," Brennan said as he sat Shalimar down and took off. "You'll get wrinkles."

Shalimar woke up in a familiar room, lying on her own bed. God, I love my bed, Shalimar grinned. She looked around and her clock indicated that it was night. She had bandages all over her, covering each wound, and the infected one seemed to have been cleaned up. She'd have to thank Jesse for that later. Her bruises were still there though.

"I knew that would hurt this morning." Shalimar muttered. Shalimar jumped as she heard a knock on the door and Brennan came in.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Brennan asked gently, as he sat next to her on the bed. Shalimar's body felt like a blade had sliced her open, and her head felt like lead and little did she remember. However, she did remember what Kayley had told her about herself and Brennan.

"A little groggy." Shalimar said, whilst Brennan twirled her hair around his fingers. Shalimar didn't feel comfortable now when he did that, knowing what he had done. What he had done to her.

"Please don't do that." Shalimar said quietly and Brennan looked surprised.

"What? Twirl your hair? I've always done it before." Brennan said, slightly confused.

"Yeah, well that was before I found out how you betrayed me." Shalimar got up to leave, but suddenly felt very light headed and collapsed to the floor.

"Shal!" Brennan said in concern, and helped her up.

"I don't need your help." Shalimar snapped at him and he felt stung by her words.

"Oh yeah, well it looked like you needed me when the doctors from hell were about to slice and dice you!" Brennan argued, raising his voice. Shalimar shot him a warning look and crawled back onto her bed.

"You betrayed me, I thought we had something, something really amazing, but I guess it wasn't enough. I wasn't enough." Shalimar turned and shed a few tears into her pillow.

"What are you talking about?" Brennan asked gently. Obviously Shalimar was upset and the last thing he wanted was to enrage her more, but he had to find out why she felt this way.

"I'm talking about you and Kayley." She replied, turning back to him, looking red and puffy around the eyes where she had been crying. Seeing the look of confusion on his face, she continued. "Kayley told me about you and her. About you sleeping together." She turned back around to her pillow.

"She told you what?" Brennan's fury was rising.

"It's ok. I understand if you want her, I just -"

"Shal, I don't want her, I never wanted her. What she told you, it's all bullshit." Brennan explained. "I want you and no one else, it's always been you."

"Really?" Shalimar looked deeper into his eyes than she ever had before and felt a rush of warmth and love.

"How else would you explain why I've been single for so long?" He joked and Shalimar hit him with a pillow.

"Shal. There is something I do need to tell you though." Brennan said, looking down at his arm.

"This isn't good, is it?" Shalimar replied.

"Not really, no." Brennan took a deep breath. "When I first met Kayley, there was something about her to me, but then I thought of you and all I could do was think of you, so I knew it could never happen with Kayley." Brennan finished. Shalimar was stunned by his confession. Although the thought of Brennan and Kayley together made her want to tear out her eyeballs, she was really glad that he had chosen her over Kayley, therefore she wasn't that mad.

"It's ok, as long as you're honest with me. But really, I think it's you who should be cooking me dinner this time." She smiled.

"It's a date." Brennan smiled at her.

"So, what took you so long to come and get me?" Shalimar said, referring to her kidnapping.

"Oh, you know, Jess and I had a game of basketball and then we went to the pub for a few drinks." Brennan joked and Shalimar playfully hit him. He started tickling her and she burst into laughter and Brennan laughed watching her.

"Stop!" She shouted in between laughs.

"Never." Brennan replied. Shalimar grabbed his hands and forced them above his head, while she was sitting on top of him. She leaned down and kissed him. The kiss was passionate and intense and before they knew it, Brennan was unbuttoning her shirt and Shalimar had taken off his top. They were touching each other so tenderly, yet they kissed so powerfully. This is perfect, they thought in unison.

"Hey Lexa?" Jesse walked into Lexa's room, unaware that she was changing.

"Jess!" Lexa ran to her bathroom. "Ever heard of knocking?"

"I am so sorry, I'll come back later." Jesse went to leave.

"No, it's ok," Lexa emerged from the bathroom wearing a leather skirt and a black top. She's so beautiful, he gaped. "So, what did you want?" Lexa snapped him back to reality.

"I said I'd be here if you wanted to talk. You know, about Kayley." Jesse said, staying near the door. He didn't want to invade her privacy.

"What's to talk about? I trusted someone and it came back to bite me in the ass. The lesson here is to not trust anyone, that way, I can't get hurt." Lexa said, tidying up her room.

"No, the lesson here is to be careful who you trust. You can't not trust anyone ever again." Jesse pointed out. Lexa just ignored his comment and continued to tidy up. God, she's stubborn, Jesse huffed. Jesse grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him.

"Do you trust me?" Jesse asked, he had to hear this for himself.

"Come on Jess, let go, I've got stuff to-"

"Answer the question Lexa." He interrupted. She looked at him in the eye.

"I don't know." She answered and he let her go, feeling really disappointed. She went and sat on her bed, playing with her nails.

"It's just all so confusing. I want to trust you, I really do, but I'm afraid I'll get hurt again." She confessed.

"I'd never hurt you." Jesse said gently. "Never." She smiled to herself, he's so sweet! Out of nowhere, Jesse kissed her and Lexa pulled back surprised.

"I'm sorry, that was-" Jesse begun, but Lexa kissed him back before he could finish.

"Don't be, I was just a little surprised." She smiled and it was the most beautiful sight Jesse had ever seen.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to kiss you, to tell you that I care for you more than anything." He confessed, slightly blushing.

"Me too. Even Kayley could see I liked you." Lexa replied.

"Lexa, I just want you to know-" Lexa put her fingers on his lips.

"Not now Jess." She kissed him. This time more confidently and Jesse returned her affection. Their bodies were entwined and although there were two of them physically, spiritually it felt like one.

Shalimar awoke in the morning, with Brennan beside her. He is so cute when he sleeps, she smiled. However amazing and relaxing last night was, she still had some rage issues about Kayley she had to deal with, so she decided to go to the training room and let Brennan sleep. Her wounds were still sore, but not as bad as yesterday. Besides, she figured if she beat up a punching bag and envisioned it was Kayley, she would feel a lot better. Shalimar got up and went into the bathroom to change. Slipping out of the room, Shalimar gave Brennan a quick kiss on the forehead and left for the training room.

Lexa was awake at 9:30am for the first time in her life and she felt great. Jesse and her had had a wonderful night that she would never forget. I just hope Jesse feels the same way, Lexa thought. Jesse was still sleeping, but Lexa felt sort of restless now and as much as she'd like to sleep next to Jesse until he woke up, she felt she still had some stuff to deal with on the whole Kayley situation. So she got up and got changed into some kick-ass clothes to go and beat something up in the training room. She gave Jesse one last look and headed out.

When Lexa had got to the training room, she found Shalimar already there, beating the shit out of the punching bag.

"Careful, you don't want to break it." Lexa said, entering the room.

"Hey Lex. What are you doing up so early?" Shalimar noticed, taking a break from the punching bag.

"Just thought I'd get up early and do a little training." Lexa explained.

"Cool, me too. Sorry if this hurts but I still have some anger issues on the whole Kayley thing." Shalimar said, turning back to the punching bag and giving it fiercer punches and kicks than before.

"I'm sorry Shal." Lexa apologised. Shalimar stopped and looked at her.

"For what?" Shalimar looked confused.

"For telling Kayley about you guys, for inviting her here and mostly I'm sorry for sticking up for her when we'd found out the truth." Lexa finished; sitting down by the wall and Shalimar shortly joined her. "I guess I just didn't want to except that she betrayed me."

"Lex, you did those things because you found someone you trusted and I don't blame you for trusting someone, just… be careful who you choose to trust." Shalimar advised.

"Thanks." Lexa replied, getting up. Shalimar went back towards the punching bag. "Hey Shal," Lexa said. "Can I trust Jesse?"

Shalimar smiled and answered, "He's the one person you definitely don't have to worry about." Lexa smiled this time.

"Hey, you wanna spar?" Lexa asked.

"Sure, just don't hate me when I kick your butt." Shalimar teased. Before they could star a voice called out to them.

"If you're going to spar with anyone, it should be me." Lexa and Shalimar turned around and saw nothing.

"It's Kayley in stealth mode." Shalimar whispered. Shalimar used her golden feral eyes to see Kayley's body heat like she had found Lexa the first time they met.

"There." Shalimar pointed and then Kayley came out of stealth so that both women could see her.

"What are you doing back here?" Lexa asked defensively.

"You're not happy to see me?" Kayley looked at her.

"You betrayed me and tried to kill Shal." Lexa cried.

"Yeah, about that. Sorry Lex, I had to. As for Shalimar, it wouldn't have been such a big loss." Kayley smiled and stood in a defensive stance.

"It would have been to me." Brennan interrupted and sent a blast of energy Kayley's way. She staggered back slightly.

"That was not nice!" Kayley shouted at him, but Brennan just shrugged.

"I have a feeling Lex and Shal are going to want to take care of you." Brennan faced Lexa and Shalimar. "Ladies?"

"Thanks Bren." Shalimar answered. Shalimar immediately lunged into the air and plunged a kick right into Kayley stomach followed by Lexa who punched her square in the face. As this was happening, Jesse walked in.

"Hey Brennan, what's going on?" Jesse asked, leaning against the walk next to Brennan watching Lexa and Shalimar beat the crap out of Kayley.

"The girls are dealing with Kayley." Brennan simply explained.

"How long has this been going on?" Jesse asked.

"About 2 minutes." Brennan replied. Shalimar and Lexa were still double-teaming against Kayley and obviously Kayley was getting beaten up pretty bad. Unluckily for Shalimar and Lexa, Kayley kicked both of them very hard into the stomach. This gave time for Kayley to blind them, including Brennan and Jesse, and then go back into stealth mode. Before Shalimar could get up, she could feel Kayley kicking her in the spine and she was in too much pain to retaliate. Lexa, however, couldn't see where Kayley was.

"Where is she Shal?" Lexa shouted.

"She's just finished kicking me in the back." Shalimar cried with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Shal, can you do that feral thing you do and find her please." Lexa commanded and then felt an over-whelming pain in her jaw as she was knocked backwards. Shalimar was watching with her feral eyes glowing.

"Um, I think she might be right in front of you." Shalimar said sarcastically.

"Thanks Shal." Lexa said between beatings. Shalimar lunged herself on top of Kayley, making it look like to everyone else that she was floating in mid-air.

"You know what," Lexa said. "Two can play this game." And then Lexa herself turned invisible.

"Oh great, now I feel really left out." Shalimar joked. Shalimar changed to her feral eyes again and could see both body heats. The slight flaw in Lexa's plan though, was that Shalimar wasn't 100 sure which body heat was Kayley's and which was Lexa's.

"Lexa, this won't work, I don't know which body signature is yours and which one is-" Shalimar was stopped by Kayley who was behind her and had now delivered loads of punches, kicks and she thought something that felt like a metal rod. Lexa could see that Shalimar was getting beaten up, so she rushed over there to help. She thought Kayley was behind her, punched the point in air that would most likely be the height of her face, and connected with what she guessed was Kayley's jaw. This gave Shalimar time to stand up.

"Thanks." She said in between breaths.

"Anytime." Lexa replied. Surprisingly, Kayley came out of stealth.

"Come and get me." Kayley taunted, Shalimar and Lexa looked at each other and then ran at Kayley, who was firmly holding her ground. Shalimar and Lexa gave more punches and kicks than before and it was all Kayley could do just to block. With one lucky blow, she punched Shalimar, making her lose her balance and then kicked Lexa, making her fall to the floor. Kayley gathered her powers and aimed a ray of light towards Shalimar, which would tear a whole through her body and burn her.

"Goodbye Shalimar." Kayley said, Brennan was about to run towards her, but Lexa kicked her down before he got there.

"We're on top of it Bren." Shalimar smiled reassuringly, before helping Lexa. Kayley had stumbled, but landed one fierce blow to Lexa's head, which knocked her unconscious.

"Lex!" Shalimar and Jesse shouted in unison. Jesse ran over to Lexa as Shalimar continued fighting. Kayley swung a fist towards Shalimar's face, but Shalimar ducked it and twisted Kayley's arm around her back and pushed, snapping the bone. Shalimar let go and Kayley turned around to face Shalimar, screaming about her arm. Shalimar just smiled and swung her arm at Kayley's head with such a force that her neck snapped, which everyone heard.

"Stay off my territory!" Shalimar shouted to the lifeless corpse. Brennan came over to Shalimar and took her in his arms. Her wounds her reopened on her stomach and face and some new one's had appeared, but to Brennan, she's never looked so beautiful.

"Are you alright?" Brennan asked, caressing her face.

"Nothing a bath and some company won't cure." She smiled and Brennan lit up.

"I'm in." Brennan volunteered and laughed. Jesse had just about woken Lexa up and she immediately saw Jesse.

"Hey." He smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"Well," She said, rubbing her head. "That'll be bruised tomorrow, but otherwise I'm fine." Jesse helped her.

"Thanks Jess." Lexa said, feeling slightly light-headed. Looking over at Shalimar and Brennan and seeing them hugging she said, "I told you those two would get together." Shalimar looked at Jesse and Lexa.

"Funny, I was telling Brennan the same thing about you two." Shalimar smiled and then looked at Brennan. "You owe my 20 bucks."

"How about dinner on me?" He smiled.

"Good enough."Shalimar replied, kissing him.

"Yeah, I think Lex and I are gonna stay in. What do you say?" Jesse turned his attention to Lexa.

"I'd love to." Lexa answered, kissing him too.

"Um, what about her?" Shalimar pointed to Kayley. Her body was twisted and she had died with a surprised and tormented look on her face.

"I'll send the Dominion in to collect her. It's their problem now." Lexa said. She still felt she had a lot to learn about trust, but with Jesse by her side, she felt she'd learn quickly. Brennan retreated to his room with Shalimar, as did Jesse and Lexa to his room.

THE END OR MAYBE A BEGINNING