Check me out, I managed to get this out quick! Hope you enjoy!
All the disclaimers remain the same... I own nothing, I'm just borrowing, blah blah...
Thanks for the reviews and interest. I'm glad this is going along so well. This chapter begins the real ride into the big story. I would love for you to just let me know what you think.
Thanks as always to Stephanie, Sara and Rachel! The best I could ask for!
10 New Horizons 10
"I'd hoped that you would return and find this, Shalimar." Adam's voice drifted through the speakers on the computer, and Shalimar had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming out loud. "I don't have much time to tell you this, but first I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was alive, and I'm sorry that I'm not able to be with you all now."
Shalimar stared at the computer screen, tears coursing down her cheeks. Adam was once again trying to help them. After all that had happened, he still hadn't abandon them. "I've uploaded all of your, Lexa, Jesse, and Brennan's medical files onto the disk. I can't tell you how to save me, but I can tell you how to save Jesse and Brennan." Shalimar let out a startled gasp, "I have information for a contact loaded on here as well. I know that you and Lexa have tried to rescue them several times, but with his help you will be able to find and hopefully save them successfully. Your old pass codes will access the information on this disk."
Shalimar started keying in her old pass codes to gain access to the disk's information while listening to Adam talk. She wasn't surprised that Adam remembered her pass codes and used them for her to gain access. It was just something Adam did.
"Shalimar, you and Lexa have to save Jesse and Brennan. The Dominion is wearing them down; this contact will help you find and set up a retrieval for them. I can't do anymore at this time, but if I can, I will find you all again." Adam's voice stopped and Shalimar continued to access the information on the disk, thinking how six months later Adam had returned to their lives. A part of her chided the other part for ever doubting Adam, but after almost six months she had begun to lose all hope of ever finding or hearing from him again.
Being no novice at hacking and computers, Shalimar quickly ran several scans on the disk to make sure that no outside lines were being accessed and that the disk was not acting as a homing beacon for the Dominion. Shalimar matched the voice recognition with Adam's and felt a thrill run through her as it confirmed a match. She checked and re-checked all of the connections and reviewed the disk for anything that might be a tip-off of a trap. She could not find anything that was cause for alarm. Pulling up the contact information, she stared at the name and the picture that was attached to it, Ian Massett. She accessed the database that she and Lexa had compiled from the remnants of the old Sanctuary system with data they had scavenged at the safe houses they had been at, it wasn't a complete list but fairly comprehensive, and ran the name and photo. He came up as an unknown whereabouts and very little information was available on him. The picture listed in their database was younger, but definitely the same man.
Shalimar could feel herself practically vibrating with excitement and anxiety. The address that was listed for contact was an email address, no phone or location. Further searches retrieved the last known address almost fifteen years ago, and that was with his parents, who were listed as deceased. The house had been through several owners since that time. It hit her like a ton of bricks; she had to wake up Lexa!
Bounding up the steps taking two and three at a time, she ran down the hall to Lexa's room and began rapping on the door, completely uncaring to the fact that it was after two am in the morning. "Lexa, wake up!" Shalimar called, turning the knob and carefully entering the room so as not to completely scare Lexa.
"Are we under attack?" Lexa asked quickly looking up and then processed the lack of attack noise, with the exception of Shalimar's excited face and voice, and fell face first into her pillow.
"No, you have to come see this!" Shalimar said.
"It can't wait a few more hours?" Lexa moaned into her pillow. She had just gotten Jesse alone, and they were on a beach and the cute cabaña boy just brought them refills on their Mai-Tai's. "Please tell me this is worth getting out of bed for." She relented, dropping her feet to the side of the bed and padding barefoot downstairs after Shalimar.
Beau and Angel, hearing all of the noise Shalimar had made, were now awake and curious as to what the excitement was all about, and followed the blond and brunette down into the sub-level. There Shalimar replayed the entire disk for the other three people.
"Where did you say you got this again?" Lexa's blue eyes pinned Shalimar into place. She had replayed the message three times and looked over all the encrypted information, looking for any sign of foul play or a trap. So far it was passing Lexa's test as legit.
"I didn't," Shalimar said resolutely, "All you need to know is that I found it, and the information on here can help to save us all."
"Shal," Lexa sighed, "How do we know this isn't a trap?"
"It can't be, that is Adam's voice. I ran it against the vocal equalizer, and it was a dead on match." Shalimar said, getting frustrated. "Why can't we contact the guy and see what he has to say?"
"B e c a u s e… It might be a T R A P!" Lexa said feeling annoyed that Shalimar wouldn't tell her where she got the disk, and that Shalimar was so willing to trust this information that had seemingly dropped into their laps. "Shal, we have to be cautious, we have come too far to be caught by the Dominion now. Now tell me where you got it." Lexa finally decided to try a different approach after a few deep breaths to avoid screaming.
"I can't." Shalimar said, staring at her boots.
"Shalimar, maybe if you told us how you got it we can decide how dangerous it might be." Beau's voice cut into the tension with its thick tenor as he glided between the two women who were now trying to stare one another down.
"Shal, it's just that this all of a sudden turned up, and you were concerned enough not to have us know about it before this. We have to be careful." Angel added, seeing Shalimar's resolve beginning to fail.
"I got it at... Sanctuary." The last word was so faint on her lips it was barely audible.
For a moment the world had gone silent as the four stared among themselves.
"Shal, is that where you went the other day?" Lexa slowly asked, almost unsure of how to react.
"Yes, I had to." Shalimar said softly, but defiance filled her eyes and face.
Lexa studied her for a minute deciding on the best method to approach this subject then simply asked, "Why?"
"I had to go see for myself, and I knew you would freak if I told you where I was going." At Lexa's subtle nod she continued, "I needed to do this for myself, to put the past to rest. I didn't really think the disk would be important, I figured it was something that the Dominion left behind after they raided Sanctuary. Then when I got back we were fighting over stuff, and I forgot all about it." Shalimar's eyes were the only thing that belayed the conflicted emotions she was feeling.
Lexa took a moment and looked at the disk, then looked at Angel and Beau to see if they were going to add anything. Both ferals looked back at her with the same look of uncertainty. "Shal, we've run all the tests and checked up on this mutant, but do you really think this isn't a set up? Adam was cloned from the creator; it could be another clone or even the creator himself toying with us to come out of hiding."
Shalimar looked at her for a moment, "No… maybe… I don't know, but what I do know is that we aren't getting anywhere on our own, and maybe we need to take a chance."
Twenty minutes later, Lexa was typing an email to Ian Massett. They had agreed on finding out what this guy knew. Lexa routed the email through as many servers as possible and set up a dummy account to check for a reply. Shalimar stood by her, shifting back and forth on the balls of her feet with excitement and nerves. Once the discussion had ended with Lexa and Shalimar making their decision to contact Ian through as much security as possible, Beau and Angel returned to bed.
Lexa who was now awake, but still groggy, began to brew a pot of coffee while Shalimar accessed their medical files that were on the disk. Listed on the disk were files on each of their treatments and changes in their genetic structure. Adam had included what treatments were performed on who and when. Shalimar found no information pertaining to their estimated dates of death. Living with that thought for the past six months had been hell, and she hated knowing that the Dominion had manipulated them all so easily. Their unstable genetic structure was a plague to all of them and without Adam there was no hope of fixing it.
"Any luck yet?" Lexa asked, placing a cup of coffee down in front of Shalimar and looking over her shoulder at the screen.
"He has all the treatments listed, but even he said he didn't know which one had saved Jesse's life. There's nothing on here pertaining to our expiration dates." Shalimar huffed.
Lexa gave her a look that could only be described as duh. "Shal, you know as well as I do that Adam wouldn't have put them on here even if he knows. That's not what he wants us to think about, he wants us to try to figure out what he did different that saved Jesse's life." She took a sip of her coffee and opened her own medical file and perused the information. She was amazed at the depth that Adam had put into the files. "He must have been working on these for a while, he has all of this information listed about my implant included, and he removed that a while ago."
"Knowing Adam, he probably had this plan in the back of his mind ever since he went into hiding." Shalimar said as she drank her coffee and rechecked the email account on the second terminal for the tenth time in an hour.
"Shal, it's four o'clock in the morning, do you really think he will respond to this now?" Lexa said, looking at her watch and then returning to perusing the medical files listed.
Shalimar just shot her a look and began to check out some of the other companies the Dominion had been using as fronts. She would hopefully not need any of this information, but it had been something to kill time until they were contacted. About ten minutes later, she rechecked the email account and saw a reply and almost fell off her stool.
"Lex, what were you saying about him not replying at this hour?" Shalimar said as she opened the email and read the one line reply several times over. The only thing it said was Shelly's Diner, Route 10, 12:15.
"Well I guess we have our answer." Lexa said as she and Shalimar shared a look, containing equal parts fear and hope.
Deciding that they had several hours before having to awake and at the meeting location, Lexa and Shalimar decided to try to get some sleep. Lexa had found that even the two cups of coffee she had were doing nothing to keep her awake. Both women agreed to wait until the morning to fill Beau and Angel in on the developments.
Lexa and Shalimar returned to their rooms, and Lexa fell into a blissful sleep, feeling the exhaustion of the past few days catching up with her. She spared only a moments thought to being worried about the meeting, but then channeled that worry into thoughts of having Jesse back and finally getting time in his arms again. Her last thoughts as she drifted to sleep were of how he had really broken down her defenses, and she had hardly cared.
Shalimar had a tougher time trying to find a blissful rest. After about an hour of tossing and turning, she looked out her window and noticed the sky getting lighter. Finally she threw on a pair of sweats and sneakers, grabbed the journal and quietly made her way out the door and down to the beach.
It felt good to be out in the open air again, and she stretched then ran up and down the beach several times before settling down on some rocks to watch the sunrise. The air was cool, but not freezing and felt good on her skin, flushed from her run. The sky had lightened just enough to see the blues and reds of the early morning. She grabbed the journal from its resting place on the rock and opened it to the next entry.
December 28, 2002
I couldn't help feeling like a kid again when Christmas rolled around this year. For so long the holiday meant very little to me. Usually I would be out at a club or sleeping off the previous night's hangover.
I actually offered to help Shal get the tree this year, much to her surprise. Jesse couldn't run the other way fast enough with a hurried 'Thanks' thrown over his shoulder. We got another huge tree, but this year Shalimar brought a chainsaw. She smiled when she pulled it out and told me that after last year's debacle she was not going to let me near a hand saw again if she could help it.
Adam must enjoy watching us act like a bunch of little kids sometimes because he sat and watched us opening our presents with this smile on his face. He got the four of us each paintball guns with explicit directions that the first one to use it in Sanctuary had to clean and dust the entire place alone. We had a game of paintball outside afterwards, and it didn't last to long because it was too cold and the paintballs froze. About an hour later we resigned to waiting for warmer weather, each of us limping back in to Sanctuary with welts all over. I still can't believe Shal shot me in my ass, twice. I am just able to sit on my left side without hurting! Shal was the only one to escape unharmed, at least mostly… I had to have retribution so I waited until she was lounging on the recliner and smashed a paintball in her hair. Adam started to yell, but he said I couldn't use the gun, he said nothing about the paintballs! I am going to have to watch my back for a while now, but it was worth it.
Shalimar laughed to herself remembering that incident. She had so much fun laughing at Brennan and Jesse. The four of them were running around in the snow, and Jesse kept trying to phase to avoid being shot. Emma finally got him in the end when he wasn't looking.
She scowled as she remembered the lather, rinse, repeat, times ten to shampoo the paint out of her hair. She had just about killed him. Revenge was sweet when she got him back a few weeks later. Brennan had been passed out on the sofa when she caught him. She had used enough makeup to make a cheap hooker jealous, but the pictures were priceless!
Looking up at the sky it was slowly getting lighter and the dark blues and reds were fading to pinks, orange with some soft violet. The last stars of the night had long since winked out of site. She was really happy they had chosen this location. They were desolate enough for her to be outside more. It was definitely a lot better then being stuck inside constantly. Looking down she continued to read the next entry.
January 23, 2003
Having Becky step back into my life was like a good dream and a bad nightmare rolled into one. I hated myself for so long because I still loved her. Repression had worked well for me. She used to be my world. She loved the thrill of the heist as much as I did and was good at the game. She was the first girl I loved, and maybe that's why I was always such a fool when it came to her.
She had me completely fooled into believing Connor was my son. I mean he bore a mild resemblance and everything. She even went as far as to having him believe it. I can't stop thinking about what it would be like to be a father. I've never been able to keep a pet for too long let alone take care of another person.
Jesse was probably the only reason Shalimar didn't beat the living daylights out of Becky. Shal has always been protective of us, but when it came out that Becky had deceived me about Connor, I thought she was going to draw blood. Jesse caught Shal right before she hauled off and hit Becky, but Shalimar definitely went off even after that, telling Becky what kind of person Shal thought she really was, and all the apologies in the world can't change the pain she caused. Part of me can't help but love Shalimar for being so protective, but it is my life and I have to live with my mistakes.
I know I've thought of leaving the team a lot of times in the past, and the idea of being a father to Connor almost made me leave without thinking about it. There are so many days that I am on the edge of telling Adam that I can't stand all the secrets or the questions that come up and just walking out. I don't know why a drifter like me has settled down this long. I never used to stay anywhere too long.
Emma tried to talk to me about Becky and Connor, but for some reason she was really being condescending or maybe I just wanted to be left alone. I felt her trying to probe my mind almost, and I wasn't ready for it. I know she means well, and I am happy to have her around most of the time. This time I just didn't feel like sharing.
I managed to find some solace in the gym. I think my muscles are going to hate me in the morning. Shal walked in about an hour into my attack on the different bags and offered to spar with me. I started to decline, but then thought about how a good spar might bring me out of my funk. I think she let me win two of the rounds, but she did get the best three out of five. I love to spar with her. I used to worry about hurting her, and now we have such a well thought out strategy of pulling punches and kicks just enough that we just fight. Shal never said a word to me about Becky or Connor. She just sparred with me and pushed me on. She fights dirty sometimes and loves to taunt me when she thinks I'm holding back or not giving my actions enough thought. We must have sparred half the night without realizing it. Around three am we finally called it quits.
Out of everyone, Shal usually seems to know what I need, and I feel bad for not always knowing what to do for her. She said she always knows when it's me and that she can sense me. I don't have the courage to ask her why or if it's the same with Jesse or Emma. I know the whole ordeal with Nikki had driven her nuts, and I wish I had followed my instincts about her instead of listening to Adam, Jesse, or Emma. I feel like I let Shal down, and I could have been smarter. I just can't believe that Shalimar would ever believe that Nikki was sexier then her. I still get those fantasy dreams every now and again. Maybe I'll write the next one down.
Smiling as the sun rose almost seemingly out of the water, she felt hope that she might soon see Brennan and Jesse again. She hated to feel any kind of false hope, but right now it was what she needed to keep going and see this meeting with Ian Massett through. Lexa thought she was going into this with blinders on because she wanted so badly to believe this would work, but the truth was that she was probably as unsure about this deal as Lexa. Shalimar still trusted Adam, although her faith in him had been shaken considerably, this just seemed like something that he would do.