Telepath Wolf

Healer

Keep in mind that I do not own Babylon 5 or its characters, so if you recognize any of them, THEY'RE NOT MINE. They are property of WB and Straczynski. (Put in other words, I am not making money out of writing this, I'm only doing it for the pleasure of sharing a piece of my mind with you all)

Please remember that this story portrays a little different approach to Susan's and Talia's relationship, which means YES, as most of my stories, this is a FEMLASH, if this bothers you, you shouldn't be here, so leave now if you're not comfortable with this fact.

Also remember that Susan is a werewolf, kinda like the ones portrayed in the Underworld movies. You know, strong, virtually immortal, and able to control when they shift.

And don't forget I altered the timeline to suite my needs for things to flow between them. I however, did not alter the B5 General plot line, so the major events that happened during the series, are still there, some of them with a little twist, but most of them stayed just the same.

Remember to leave your reviews…

Telepath Wolf

Chapter 26

Healer

"Lt Commander, may I have a word with you before you leave?" Asked me Dr Franklin one day after my weekly rounds to the clinic. I nodded, and let him lead me to his 'back office' "Listen, I don't want you to get angry or anything, but remember when you said you wanted to share the fun as well as the blame?" I nodded but stared skeptically at him while feeling his hesitation and wariness about whatever that was about "Right, well, I need to inform you of something I'm involved with, that you might want to share the fun too"

He went on to tell me how he had started an underground railroad to smuggle rogue telepaths to other worlds, all of them obviously being 'hunted' by Psi Corps. He was using the clinic as a front cover and he had contacts that felt strong for their cause. He stated that he watched my interaction with Alisa and how I was adamant to keep her away from the Corps so he made the decision to let me on his covert operation.

"Look Doctor, I won't stop you from helping them, but don't expect me to go out of my way to aid telepaths, no matter if they're affiliated or not to the Psi Corps" I told him truthfully

"But Alisa's a telepath, and you helped her" he argued

I sighed "Because she is a just a kid."

"There are children you could help too" he said in a hopeful tone

"Even when I know you might find young telepaths in the group you want to help, I simply don't trust telepaths" I told him

"Ok fine, then I can only ask you not to report me on this" he said hopefully

"Just keep an eye out. Mr Garibaldi is a sharp man and so is the Commander" I told him before I left.

I asked Maher to keep an eye out too, and I ordered everyone to be on the lookout, considering that there were more telepaths on the station than we originally thought. So far we had only taken measures to avoid the registered alien and human telepaths on B5, we hadn't count on the rogues.

Reports had come from our people in Mars stating that they had not found anything yet regarding the Psi Corps facility in Syria Planum, however they had noticed a group of people, humans and Mimbaris mostly, usually dressed with robes from some sort of cult, that were coming and going gathering information too, and that they stated that they were sympathizers to the Free Mars movement. Tessa's report stated that they were more than apt fighters and that a few of them had taken to teach the rebels a few moves and strategic plans.

According to Zack, some people that were regularly on and off the station, matched the physical and dress description provided by Tessa, reason which I ordered everyone else to do everything within their power to find out more about them but being cautious of them, we didn't want to expose ourselves to this strangers.

The new year was fast approaching and President Santiago was scheduled for a big speech on New Year's Eve from IO's jump point. And in the Galaxy front, the Narn and the Centauri kept attacking each other's colonies, fighting over the control for Quadrant 37.

A piece of good news was that Maher had told Neeoma about our nature and being his mate, and Neeoma asked to be part of the pack, though not immediately, she stated she would like to wait a year or two before actually turning into one us, however she promised in the mean time, to keep our secret and help us in any possible way. Maher of course, was beyond ecstatic and I somewhat envied him, and the relationship he had with his mate.

"You know you could have something even better with Blondie if only you were not so stubborn" he told me once, but I left him standing there, not in the mood to argue, spar or anything at all.

On December 30, a lurker informant of Mr Garibaldi was attacked and luckily made it to Zocalo before collapsing. According to Mr Garibaldi, the last thing he said were the words 'They're gonna kill him'. Unfortunately he died in the Medlab facilities that same day. Garibaldi's investigation on that matter lead him to a man named Deveraux, whom he placed in custody. No one in the pack knew anything about what had happened, and I ordered them to stay away of it in fear of interfering with Garibaldi, maybe I made a mistake then, but keeping everyone in the pack safe was my priority as Alpha.

By December 31st, Jeff asked Garibaldi and myself to join him and Ms Sakai for dinner, which luckily gave me the perfect excuse to avoid Talia who had decided that day to approach me again and ask me out. To this day, I don't know what possessed her to be so persistent about us, I'm grateful she was, but I really do not understand why she put up with all the shit I gave her.

"So, what's the occasion?" Asked Garibaldi over dinner

"Who says there has to an occasion for joining you for dinner?" asked an amused Ms Sakai

"I didn't get to be Chief of Security 'cause of my good looks" added Garibaldi smirking. He was partly right, his 'looks' certainly were not that nice to look at.

"So, what's up?" I asked too now intrigued, having gotten a scent of nervousness and joy from both Jeff and Ms Sakai

"We need you to do a job for us" said Jeff in a serious tone

"No problem, give me the guy's name and I'll-" Jumped Garibaldi, but his rant got interrupted by Jeff

"Not that kind of job" said Jeff amused now "I think the official title is 'best man'"

"Best…?" asked confused Garibaldi, and I couldn't help but wonder why his mind was so fast sometimes and others, such as this, he seemed to be so slow "You two?" He asked a minute later

"And I'll need a maid of honor" said Ms Sakai looking at me "I don't know anyone here so if you wouldn't mind…"

"I'll be honored" I assured her "Congratulations"

"Well, it's great" said Garibaldi getting over the initial shock "After all this time, I'm glad things are working out for you. I've always been proud to be your friend Jeff, and I'm honored to be your best man, well, I'm honored to be the best at anything" we all chuckled at his rant, he was about to continue when his link chirped "Never fails… Garibaldi, what?"

"Chief, the prisoner you brought in, Deveroux, is missing" was heard over the link, I did not recognize who it was

"Missing?" Asked Garibaldi in an angry tone "What the hell do you mean?"

"I don't know sir, he's just gone" was the response he got

"Alright, I'm on my way" he said ending the link "I knew there was more to this guy than meets the eye" he told us "I checked the weapon I took of him, every PPG has a serial number on the inner coil. They are harder than diamonds so the number can't be removed. But this PPG didn't have a number"

"So you say he found a way to remove it?" I asked not getting his point

"I'm saying it was never there" he stated "Only special agents on Earthforce Security get unnumbered PPGs. This guy's name wasn't on file and now he's gone. I don't like this" he said standing and leaving to follow up on his case.

After dinner was over I changed into my uniform again and headed to CnC, a few more ships were scheduled to arrive before New Year's Eve so I was on duty, partly due to the fact that being jew, I did not celebrate New Year as almost everyone else in the galaxy did. When the last scheduled ship for the day had docked I dismissed the ensign that was on call and gave him leave to go celebrate like everyone else did. I decided to lean back on my chair and turn on the ISN live feed on the President's coming speech. It appeared that vice-president Clark disembarked 'Earthforce 1' earlier that day due to an illness, but that President Santiago continued with his journey to Jupiter. Talia came to the dome on that same moment, which in part pleased me but mostly it annoyed me too.

"You are not supposed to be here" I told her dryly still staring at the monitor with the ISN feed

"I just thought I'd make you company, no matter what you said earlier today, no one should spend New Year's Eve alone" she said smiling

"I'm Jew" I told her simply. She stared at me, clearly not understanding what that had to do with anything at all. I sighed "I don't celebrate New Year today" I clarified

"Susan" she started after a few moments of uncomfortable silence "I know I hurt you, I know I should have told you myself" she said sighing "But your pride and attitude won't even let me fight for you and win your heart back" she added getting closer to where I was.

"It's not a matter of 'winning' my heart" I said about to lose my temper "It's about you losing my trust"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you what would be asked of you-"

"You don't get to be sorry!" I interrupted standing and glaring at her "You ruined whatever could have developed between us by not being completely honest with me!" I snarled at her

"I was always honest Susan!" she countered "I never lied to you!" she added, by that moment her scent shifting back and forth with each word that left her mouth.

"Withholding information is the same as lying" I countered back "I think that after our 'date' I deserved to know what would Psi Corps try to force me into if we continued seeing each other" I snarled

"No, you didn't. At that time you agreed only to be friends" she snarled back

"Then what about after Uncle Yossel left?! Or as we got closer?! You know as well as I do that we were dating even when we didn't acknowledged it Talia!"

"You lied to me too!" she said raising her voice "I think that after WE, as you put it, started dating, I deserved a truthful explanation of what happened with Vladimir after our first date, not the crap you officially reported to Mr Garibaldi and Commander Sinclair" she said looking me in the eye.

"I kept you safe!" I told her

"You killed him!" she stubbornly stated the obvious

"He wanted to force himself on you and I couldn't let that happen!" I yelled at her "That's what happened! Are you happy now?"

"No! I'm not!" She took a deep breath and sighed "I love you Susan, why can't you see that?"

"And yet you are loyal to them, you won't leave the Corps! You don't even think about the alternatives!"

"I don't have a choice!" She yelled back, her scent shifting and settling into her second one.

"The hell you do! You just don't want to see them! I offered you an out and you refused to take it! You did not sign for exclusivity with my Company"

"What did you expect me to do?" she asked softening her tone then, looking sadly at me "I didn't think you'd want to be near me… hell you can barely look at me even in those meetings you do have to attend!"

"Because I don't want you to see how weak I feel!" I said choking a sob

"Tell me you love me too Susan, and we'll work something out, together" she said offering me her hand, he scent settling once again on the one I had originally come to associate to her.

"Apparently that's not enough" I said about to crack

"If you'd asked me to, really asked me to do it, I'd take the treatment in order to be with you Susan" she added.

"I can't let you take the drugs Talia" I said softly, standing closer to her "I don't want to lose you the same way I lost my mother" I added staring at her hand that was still raised, waiting for me to take it.

"You won't lose me Susan, unless you keep pushing me away" she said taking another step toward me

"I can't be with you! Don't you see? We can't actually be together Talia! I won't be part of the Psi Corps, and you will not be part of my pack!" I told her without thinking taking a few steps back. I berated myself for letting it slip from my tongue

"You can't blame me for not leaving the Corps when you obviously won't leave your pack or tell me what you mean by that, what you really are!" she said in a serious tone while lowering her hand realizing I was not going to take it.

"Be as it might, you can't compare the Psi Corps to us!" I told her angered again "We don't take people by force, we don't force them to be with us and we do not kill them!"

"And still, you're not denying that you wouldn't leave them!" she argued pacing

"I'm their leader! I am responsible for them! You are not responsible for anyone in the Corps!"

"Fine, answer me this then" she said taking a deep breath "If you were not their Alpha, would you leave your pack for me?"

My linked chirped preventing me from giving her an answer and interrupting my mind from going on overload by the fact that Talia knew that I was an Alpha, and probably even knew what I was and was just waiting for me to come clean with that information. "What!" I asked annoyed into my link

"Lt Commander, Mr Garibaldi contacted me with an ultraviolet alert" said Jeff over the link and I'm sure I paled, because Talia was again at my side in a second helping me to my seat.

"My orders sir?"

"You're still at CnC?" he asked me

"Affirmative"

"Stay put. I'll go meet with Mr Garibaldi as he requested, then we'll contact you. But stay alert"

"Confirmed" I said into the link

"What is it?"Asked me Talia concerned "What's an ultraviolet alert?"

That question snapped me back of my reverie. "Go to Maher, stay near him until I say otherwise"

"I won't leave until you answer my question" she said stubbornly

"If you were not Psi Corps" I told her simply, deciding it was best to answer to her first question instead of going into detail of what possible scenarios the ultraviolet alert entitled "Now go!"

She was by the threshold when she stopped and looked back at me "And, yes," she said leaning against the wall next to the door, "The Corps would have wanted you to submit, but I never said I would ask you to comply with it, or actually let them into your mind" she sighed softly and ran a hand through her hair, her scent once again shifting back and forth, which was more confusing by the moment "I have thought about the alternatives Susan. Maintaining an association with the Corps allows me more freedom than the other options… It's not that I don't consider them, it's just that most of the time, I don't think about them. At least I didn't until the moment I met and fell in love with you" she said holding my gaze "but as I just told you, if you asked me to, I'd take the drugs, or even become a rogue" she finally said as she walked out

I contacted Maher over the Babcom system and told him I had sent Talia to him, I told him I did not know exactly what was going on yet, but it was bad and dangerous so he had to keep alert and ready to take everyone, including Talia, away from B5. When I ended the link, I sobbed for several minutes, reliving the fear I had experienced about losing Talia on the few days that Epsilon 3 appeared to be a bomb about to explode; and all the mixed emotions I had felt ever since Mr Bester and Ironheart appeared in our lives. This last few months had been tough on me and my wolf, who made me run through deserted sectors of the station more often, and viciously spar against my pack mates. I had just barely gotten control over myself when the CnC link chirped.

"Sinclair to CnC"

"On line" I told him

"Mr Garibaldi was not at his quarters as he requested. I thought I'd check my quarters in case he doubled back. Still no sign of him. He is not answering his link. I don't like it" he said worried

"Agreed. He wouldn't call you with an ultraviolet alert and then vanish unless-"

"I know" he cut me "Keep trying to get him on the link. Let me know as soon as you hear anything" He ordered

"Confirmed"

I tried unsuccessfully to contact Garibaldi. A minute after the countdown to the New Year ended, I was informed by Dr Franklin that Mr Garibaldi was in the Medlab due to a shot wound. Jeff went in to check up on him and he learned that there was a plot to kill President Santiago at the transfer point in IO, which prompted the Commander to call in all the staff to their posts and ordered us to try and contact the President's staff to warn them about that.

"Have you contacted Earthforce 1 yet?" asked Jeff as he walked into the Dome. We were all frantically trying to reach them on every channel known to us and our systems to no avail.

"Conventional channels have been jammed" I informed him "It started five minutes ago" I said glancing sideways to the feed from ISN

"What about Gold Channels?"

"The same" I told him "All channels around Jupiter are jammed"

"Use civilian channels!" he ordered frustrated "Get Earthcentral online"

"All I'm getting is a recording message from the relay station from Proxima" said Lt JG Corwin, who was one of the people I had assigned to try with the Civilian channels

"Keep working on Civilian channels" ordered Jeff "Maybe ISN can warn them"

We all kept working as we heard that ISN was reporting a 10 minute delay on the speech that had not started yet and no one knew the reason.

"According to our sources the speech is to contain…" started the reporter "Just a minute, we're picking up an emergency signal now" Then the image on the screen changed to a feed from IO portraying the Earthforce 1 exploding. We all stopped dead in our tracks and stared in shock at the screen "Are we still on air?" asked the reporter "Station IO is dispatching hospital ships but it doesn't seem possible that anyone could've survived"

"Shut it off!" Ordered Jeff as we shared a concerned look. If who had shot Garibaldi was still on the station, we had to lock him down and get a confession from him about what he knew and who were involved.

"Dr Franklin thinks they can begin the operation in about five hours" told me Jeff a few minutes later, when both of us were in the Medlab. "Even under good conditions the odds of survival are 50-50" he added sadly and I debated whether or not give Garibaldi the bite, it would increase his chances of survival, but I decided against it. I couldn't force him into this and he was not in any condition to make a choice for himself. I had only been close to change one person in my life, and that was because two factors aligned together: he was about to die, and my ex-fiancée asked me to save him; however he had not consented to what it would entitle, but thanked me nevertheless, luckily he lived through that particular crisis without my help and to this date, even when he's already passed away, I still think fondly of him and consider him one of the best friends I've ever had. So I could not change Garibaldi, it was against all that was taught in our pack, and everything I had ordered after we discovered what Vladimir had done. "Garibaldi mentioned a name, Deveraux… Check all out going ships. Find him." He ordered, and I regretted for a second not sending anyone in the pack to keep an eye on Garibaldi while he conducted his investigation when he told us early in the night about this Deveraux guy "I want guards posted here around the clock plus 24hrs medical care observation. There's always a chance that whoever started this, will try to finish it. I won't allow that to happen. Understood?" he asked Garibaldi's Second in Command

"Understood" He answered dryly and something in his scent seemed off. I left with Jeff the Medlab. I ordered Oskar and Dimitri to keep guard on Garibaldi; I then ordered Maher to assign a detail to find Deveraux, Zack would have to be part of that considering he was the only of us who had come across his scent, so he would have to track him down. Unluckily it turned out that Deveraux had boarded a ship and that meant that he was not on the station the anymore.

I tiredly boarded a transport tube and was joined by G'Kar and Na'Toth, they both sat across from me.

"I was looking for the Commander" said shyly G'Kar

"He's in medlab" I said simply

"Mr Garibaldi?" asked G'Kar concerned

"We won't know for a while yet" I said sighing

"I came to tell him that there seems no point to discussing Quadrant 37 on another Counsil Meeting" informed me G'Kar

"We imagine you've heard about it" added Na'Toth

I nodded, I had heard that someone had wiped out the Narn armada stationed there and a base they had there "Yes, a little while ago. Any clues to who did it?"

"No, none" told me Na'Toth

"My condolences on the death of your President" said G'Kar after a moment "This has been a black day for both of us Lt Commander Ivanova, a black and terrible day"

"We will find whoever is responsible for the destruction of our base" started Na'Toth "And we will retaliate"

"Though our two races have had our troubles…" started G'Kar "I wish you luck in your own quest for justice. May the guilty be found and punished" he said as I stood and exited at my destination.

I headed back to the Medlab after I caught on some sleep and told Talia it was safe for her to leave to her quarters or whatever her activities were, I just asked her to stay away from me and let me do my job. I think the only reason she agreed to, was that she knew this crisis was not going to be solved in a matter of hours.

"I just heard" said Londo as he entered the Medlab and stood at my side watching over the window to the ICU where Garibaldi was laying unconscious, while a group of Doctors worked on him "Is the Comander-?"

"I just relieved him" I told him "He'll be back in four hours" Jeff and I had reached an agreement regarding our schedules to keep watch over Garibaldi and the station.

"How is he?" Asked Londo concerned about Michael

I shrugged not knowing the answer to that "They're still operating. It's taking longer than expected"

"Well… if you don't mind, I would like to wait with you" said truthfully Londo "He's an annoying man, but I would miss him if he…"

He did not finish that statement, with which I totally agreed. Garibaldi was annoying and obnoxious, but he was like the comic relieve we all needed in times like that. Little did I know of the things that the year that had just started, had in storage for us; they say that however you spend the beginning of the year is how you spend the rest of it, that year, 2259, I understood that saying.

A/N: We finally reached the end of Season 1. And Susan was once again, about to give in to Talia, but stupid 'booms' keep coming their way, though I believe she actually gave in, don't you? So, what do you think? Don't forget to leave your reviews… they nourish my imagination.

BTW, there's a paragraph here that I remembered and decided to adapt from someone else's fic, that fitted my needs for TW, I can't remember whose and which fic, so if you do know where's it from, let me know so I can add a special note here and give credit for that piece. (I'm talking about Talia's statement about not thinking in the alternatives to Psi Corps, I know someone else wrote something similar in a different scenario and I don't want anyone giving me hell for that… they can give me hell for not remembering whose, but not for not giving proper credit)

Remember I have already outlined what I want for Season two and in lights of that, I rearranged the timeline (episodes) as I did with this Season. I already started working in TW-S02E01 (which will be E27 in general) Oh! If you are wondering about the "Kosh, ViCaR and Talia incident" that in the series happened in S01E09 (Deathwalker), I decided not to use it YET, that's why it was not here…

Now, on a really happy note, this last January 4th, I had the joy to meet face to face Helene Segara… which thrilled me to no end, which for you means that I'm really really happy and therefore quite inspired, so expect an update sooner than this last one.

And if you have a twitter account and are interested, you can follow me at OriginalHealer