Thanks for reading folks. This chapter is the PG 13 version. The NC-17 version is posted at IMfanfic Yahoo group
Alli and MM
Disclaimers are in Chapter 1. We're still not getting paid
for this.
No rope is needed for this part.
Pairings: Ed/Claire
Chapter 3
Darien stopped when he saw Sloan
coming up behind him in his mind, he turned around to face her, "Sloan,
please, I want to be alone."
"No, what you need is someone to talk too who is on the outside of this.
Now sit down and talk to me."
Hesitantly, Darien sat down and
took a deep cleansing breath, "Okay, you know about the mutation in the
gland and that it caused quicksilver madness. But what you don't know is that
Claire was forced to lie to me about the cure."
"What? Who would make her do that?"
"The Official. He thought that if Claire gave me
the cure I would run. He was forcing her to risk my life on her belief that I
would stay. Strange as this is, no matter how he looked at it, I was a dead man
anyway. If I didn't get the cure I would have gone permanently nutso within the week and the gland would have been harvested.
If I did get the cure, he believed I would take off."
"Well obviously Claire gave you the cure."
"Yeah, she did. I also found out that she had the cure for a week before
she gave it to me."
"Whoa…what did you do?"
"I took off," Darien
smiled, "and then robbed a bank."
"You didn't."
"I did. But I didn't take the money; I left it in the alley. It wasn't me
anymore, not to mention that it wasn't fun with the invisibility. So, I joined
the FBI, left my friends behind."
"I'm sorry, but the Official forced you to play your hand."
"Well, I ended up coming back, obviously…but I guess my point is. I've
faced one thing after another with this gland. First the madness and the fear that
I would kill my friends, then the fear of dying and being totally insane when
it happened and now this, the whole dominant thing. I'm tired of being treated
like a lab rat. I'm just something to study, to use when necessary." Darien
looked down at his hands, "I don't have emotions anymore, not like love or
anything like that…I just sense them and I hate it. I hate everything about
this!" Darien paused; he
sensed the strong emotion coming from Sloan, "Like right now, I can sense
the sympathy from you. But I don't feel it for anyone else. Like when Ed was
drugged and went through all that pain, I just…just was…I can't put my finger
on it but it was nothing to me. I didn't feel sorry for him, it was like…aughhhh!!!" Darien
buried his face in his hands. "I don't want to be like this, I want this fricken' gland out."
Sloan rubbed Darien's back. She was
feeling sorry for him and wanted to do something to take the pain away.
"Is that bad?" Darien
asked through his hands.
"No, it's a typical dominant reaction," Sloan said. She continued to rub
his back.
"See, that's what I'm talking about. How will this affect my job, in what
I do? How am I supposed to help people if I don't feel things or have these
aggressive tendencies?"
"That is something you will have to talk to Tom about. It's been hard for
him too." Sloan said.
"There was this guy, Augustin Gaither, brilliant
scientist, very sadistic, but brilliant. He couldn't take the gland out." Darien
looked down, "It's not that I don't have faith…"
"But you're not holding your breath,"
"No…that's not it, Sloan. Its faith…I don't feel it…no, more like…I don't
need it." Darien looked at Sloan,
"Do dominants believe in God?"
"Not really, Darien. They view
all earth's religions as a sign of weakness."
"Great! There's goes all my time spent in Catholic
School down the drain." Darien
thought for a few moments, "And Christmas…crap…this really sucks."
"Ed isn't going to find a way to reinforce the gland. I'm not being negative
or anything like that; it's just that Claire has been trying to figure out a
way for two years now." Darien
looked at Sloan, "I just have to come to the realization that I'm stuck
this way, for better and for worse."
Sloan looked at Darien, "I'm
so sorry, Darien."
"It's not your fault, if Ed had been caught it would be him and who knows
what would have happened. I'm like this because of the counteragent residue in
my system. Ed might be dead by now."
Sloan nodded in agreement. Ed would have had a different response to the serum
and Ed could very well be working for the dominants or like Darien
said, dead. "What does it feel like, being invisible?"
"You wanna see?" Darien
asked.
"Yeah, I'm curious."
"Okay, hold on," Darien
touched her hand and let the quicksilver flow.
"Whooooaaa…" Sloan felt the coldness. Her
colorful world turned monochrome. "Oh my, everything is in silver."
Darien quicksilvered
his eyes to get a look at her, "Welcome to my world."
"Darien! You're eyes!"
"Oh yeah…anything that is quicksilvered will
have a color to it, my eyes are quicksilvered so I
can look at you." Darien
remembered something about dominants, "Sloan, what color am I…not my eyes…but the rest of me."
"You're like a reddish brown color, rusty maybe, like an aura is around
you." Sloan remembered what Darien
had said about seeing dominants while he was quicksilvered.
"So, this means that anyone who is quicksilvered
can differentiate dominants from humans. This is great!" She hugged Darien.
Darien wrapped his arms her and held
her tight. Anyone passing by would have seen someone with no eyes hugging thin
air. Darien quicksilvered the rest of him, "How
do I look now?"
"You're orange like your eyes were, but you still have that
aura." Sloan said.
"Okay, well there's another test result for you." Darien
ran his hand down her cheek.
"Quicksilvered dominants still have that
aura," Sloan said in velvety voice. She leaned into his touch. "Darien,
I…"
"Shhh…I know." Darien
leaned in and kissed her. He was about to search her mind when Ed walked by
grumbling. Darien broke the kiss. Sloan
looked at Darien bewildered at
first then Ed's grumbling distracted her. When Ed was out of sight, Darien
broke the contact with Sloan and the quicksilver flaked away.
Sloan looked at Darien, "I'm
sorry, Darien, I…"
"No, Sloan, I'm the one that should be sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you.
You love Tom. I don't know why I did that. Well, I do know why."
"Why?"
"Cause I'm alone." Darien
responded.
"You're not alone, Darien, you
have us."
"No, Sloan, not in that way. I've had to live a secluded life for two
years now because of the gland and now this. I'm not human and I'm not a
dominant, well DNA wise yeah, but I wasn't born like this. Not to mention these
abilities I have. I just don't fit in with either group." Darien
looked despondent, "I'm a circus freak, Sloan. Come see the dominant that
can turn invisible and read your mind better than Ms. Cleo."
Sloan put her hand on Darien's
shoulder, "Don't think of yourself that way, you're special."
"Oh yeah, special alright…so special that I have to constantly look over
my shoulder cause there is always someone who wants what's inside my head.
Can't have a steady girlfriend unless she's been debriefed by the government
cause I'm a threat to national security when I suddenly do my hocus pocus act
right when things get interesting. Oh yeah, I'm feeling real special right
now." Darien gazed at Sloan,
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so rude, but it's the truth."
Sloan looked puzzled, "Hocus pocus act…what do you
mean?"
"Don't ask..."
Darien paused, he stared at the floor
while he spoke out loud, "A soulful sister by the name of Jill Scott
poetically wrote, "Everybody wants the hero. Who just wants the man that
fights with his devils and does the best he can?" He looked at Sloan,
"But in my case its not me they want, it's the gland. I'm nothing more than
a receptacle. The Official made that loud and clear
when he told me it was never about me. Even Hobbes was hired to protect the gland,
not me. I was used as a commodity and still am. The counteragent was meant to
be a leash and boy was it tightened a few times around my neck. If I take off,
I'll be hunted down and the gland harvested, that's my leash now."
Sloan didn't know what to say. Darien
was obviously in a state of depression and she figured that with him, this is
common. "Darien, I'm sorry
that fate has dealt you this hand, but I want to be your friend, someone you
can talk to. Don't hold this inside; you'll only
make it worse."
Darien half smiled, "Thanks,
Sloan, guess I'm no Fun Bobby."
Sloan laughed, "No, Darien,
you're not exactly the life of a party, but you do have a neat trick."
Sloan looked down the hall, "I wonder what Ed was so angry about?"
"Ah…that's simple…Claire is making him give well,
you know…a sample too. She wants to compare it with mine." Darien
chuckled, "Now he knows how I feel, looks like I'm not the only lab
rat."
Sloan laughed, "Poor Ed…I'm surprised he's agreeing to it."
"Yeah…he's got it bad," Darien
looked at Sloan, "He's in love."
"Did you get that from reading his mind?"
"Nope, didn't have to on that one. It shows all on its own." Darien
looked down, "Sloan, Ed needs to stop with his research on the gene therapy."
Sloan looked confused, "Why?"
"If he succeeds, it will start a war. Do you think dominants are going to
line up and get this injection like their getting a flu shot? Its not gonna happen."
"That's what Tom said at first, but we have to do something, look what
happened to you."
"Changing humans back maybe one thing, but changing a species is something
else. You don't want to be converted, so what makes you think they will?" Darien
took Sloan's hand in his, "There has to be another way, a way that won't cause
a war. I get the whole co-existence thing that Mark was talking about. All you
need is one splash and it causes a ripple. I don't know but maybe I'm that splash.
As far as we know, I'm the only successful conversion, lucky me huh? I'm
thinking that it's for a reason, you know what I'm saying?"
"Yeah, I do."
****
Darien and Sloan had returned back to
the lab when Tom and Hobbes showed up with coffee. "Where's the
nerd?" Hobbes asked sarcastically.
"Bobby!" Claire said giving Hobbes a disgruntled look.
Darien chuckled and Tom raised a
brow. Tom didn't understand all the bantering and name calling that Hobbes and Darien
were so found of doing. Hobbes sat down on one of chairs. He mumbled as he
drank his coffee. "Wa-ha-ho
Dr. M.D., Ph.D. big shot immuno
something or other expert hack," Hobbes said into his cup of coffee.
Darien scratched at his scar behind
his neck and smirked, "What was that Hobbesy?"
Hobbes shot Darien a look from
across the room, "What? Now you've got super hearing or something or did
you read my mind?"
Now Claire was becoming concerned. Bobby appeared very angry about something.
Claire had a pretty good idea why. "Bobby, are you alright?"
Darien looked around the room like
he was looking for something, "Were there any jingle bell cards lying
around here or in the cafeteria?"
"No…mister-smarty pants…for your information, my anger is sincere." Hobbes
got up, "I'm going back to the hotel, if you need me for anything I'll be
there." Hobbes walked to the double doors and pushed it open with his
back. He gave everyone a distressed look and waved his hand in the air,
"I'll be alone, conceding defeat."
Everyone looked at each other astonished at Hobbes behavior. Claire walked over
to Darien, "It's because of me
isn't it?"
"Well, actually you and Ed. Claire, Hobbes loves you and I know you know,
but I don't think he knows that you know…whoa…almost sounded like Hobbes for a
moment."
Claire had a half hearted smile on her face. She looked down at the ground and
shuffled her feet.
Darien became serious, "You've
got to talk to Hobbes about this. He should talk to you, but he won't cause he's so hung up on this `No fishing off the company
pier thing'. You know how he gets; look what happened with his ex."
"Yeah, you're right, I should talk to him." Claire smiled, "For
the first time since I started working at the agency, I finally found someone
that I really enjoy being with."
"You really like Ed don't you?"
"I do, Darien, I really do. I
want to get to know him more, spend more time with him." Claire blushed.
Darien raised both brows from the
vision that hit him from Claire, "Claire! Geesh,
not here okay." Darien paused,
"Don't you find it weird cause we're like twins or something."
"Darien, you two may look
alike, but you are very different." Claire winked and walked away to go
back to her tests.
Darien looked puzzled, "I'm
not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing."
Ed came back and handed the cup to Claire and hid in his office. Darien
came in and sat down in front of Ed's desk. He played with Ed's name plate for
a short time and then put it back. Ed smiled at the child like manner of his
younger twin. During the talk they had
a couple of days ago they discovered that Ed was older than Darien
by just a couple of years. In fact, if Kevin was still alive today, he and Ed
would be the same age. It had been all too weird for both of them and they had
quickly changed the subject.
Ed frowned, "This is completely embarrassing, I mean look at them," Ed
motioned towards Claire and Sloan, "They act like a couple of kids in a
candy store, they're practically drooling."
Darien sat with his arms crossed,
"And I've had two years of this kind of crap…welcome to my world." Darien
looked at Ed, "You wanna go for a beer?"
"I wish I could, but I've got two weeks worth of research to catch up on. How about tomorrow?"
Darien gave Ed a low-five, "Sure thing, bro. I'll
catch you later and ah…be good."
Ed smiled and watched as Darien
swaggered out of his office. Ed got up and went back out into the lab. He did
have a lot of work to do and even though tomorrow was Saturday, he planned on
coming in anyway to do some work. Darien
was right about him, his life was in the lab.
****
Connor walked into Stark's office and sat down.
"It seems that Dr. Ed Tate is working on a gene therapy to turn these
Dominants into humans, which would help our cause immensely. The problem he's
facing right now is getting it to hold and how to administer this
`vaccine'," Stark said from behind his desk.
"How do you know all this?" Connor asked.
"Dr. Tate is providing the information and he doesn't even know it," Stark
got up and looked out the window. "And it seems like our friend Darien Fawkes is not what he used to be. He's a dominant now."
Stark turned around and faced Connor, "Bring me the lamb and the fox will
follow."
Connor stood up and smiled. He walked out of Stark's office to get his men
ready.
****
Walter walked out to his car and a limo pulled up. He turned and waited. The
window came down, "Hello, Walter."
"You really screwed things up in San Diego;
you handed one of my scientists to Lewis and nearly got him killed."
Walter said angrily.
"You better watch what you say." The lady in the limo handed Walter an
envelope, "And you better watch that scientist." The window went back
up and the limo drove away.
Walter sat in his car and read transcripts from phone calls and emails. He
slapped the papers down on his lap, "Ed!?!" He started the car and
drove off.
****
Ed sat on the stool peering into the microscope, "Claire, hand me that
next slide please." He held out his hand and took the slide. Ed carefully
pushed out the current slide and placed the next one under the microscope. He
adjusted the lenses, "Okay, here goes nothing." Ed scooted over to
the computer and started the program. Claire stood behind him and watched the
simulation.
"Come on, hold together…" Ed watched as the simulated gland on the monitor
ripped apart. "Damn it!" He bowed his head in defeat, "It should
have worked…I'm missing something here."
Claire sighed, "You need to take a break, Ed. It's late." Unconsciously,
Claire started to massage his shoulders and neck. She could feel the tension
and the tightness in his muscles.
Ed moaned, "Ohh, that feels good."
"Take your coat off," Claire said.
Ed took his lab coat off and set it down on the stool next to him. Claire
massaged his shoulders and neck. Ed groaned again. "Feel
good, Dr. Tate?" Claire asked.
"Ooh yeah, just what the doctor ordered," Ed sighed. He noticed with embarrassment
that another part of his body was taking an interest in the massage. `Ah no, not here, not now. Okay, get a grip Ed…think about
Grandma Tate…yeah…okay…grandma…with long blonde hair and beautiful blue
eyes…shit…'
Ed put his hands on top of Claire's, "Claire." He turned around and got
up from the stool.
"What's the matter, Ed?" Claire asked as she looked up at him. Her hands
traveled up his chest to rest on top of his shoulders.
Ed put his hands on each side of her face; his fingers pushed her hair aside.
He bent his head down with his lips slightly parted. She looked at his eyes and
then his mouth, her mouth slightly opened. She closed her eyes as she felt his
lips gently touch hers and placed a soft kiss on her.
Ed moved his head back to see her response. Claire wrapped her arms around him
and they kissed again, this time the kiss became more passionate. Ed's tongue
licked her slightly parted lips seeking permission to enter.
Claire opened her mouth and their tongues invaded each other's mouths for the
first time. Ed moved his hands to pull her in closer to his body and she moaned
when she felt him. Their lips were pressing harder against each other now. They
broke the kiss and Ed
trailed kisses down her neck. Claire's head went back and she sighed, "Ahh, Ed." Her hands snuck under his shirt and she ran
her nails down his back.
Ed's hand trailed up Claire's side slowly and he stopped at the side of her
breast. He kissed his way back up her neck and found her mouth again.
Hobbes didn't know how long he stood there at the double glass doors watching,
but he couldn't take it any longer. Half way back to the hotel he decided to
turn around and apologize to Claire for his behavior and tell her how he really
felt. But as he was about to
open the doors, he saw the woman he loved embraced by another man.
Hobbes first instinct was to go in there and punch Ed Tate right in the face.
But he stopped himself, it would only drive Claire further away then he already
had. He knew it was his own fault, he had made a choice not to fish off the
company pier and Claire had made a choice to go into the arms of Ed Tate. Why
not, he's smart like Kevin and looks like Fawkes.
What more could Claire want? Hobbes silently wished Claire all the best and
decided that if Tate hurt her, he would take him out. He walked away and drove
to the hotel, alone.
Claire and Ed had not seen Hobbes as he stood at the doors. Ed broke the kiss,
"Claire, if you don't want to go further let me know
now."
"Ed, I haven't been so sure about anything in my life." Claire moved her
hand and touched the side of Ed's face.
"Then I suggest we go somewhere else," Ed motioned towards the corner
of the room near the ceiling, "We were about to give the security guard a
show he won't forget."
"Hmmm…that would not be good. I'll get my things." Claire rushed off to
Ed's office and grabbed her purse.
Ed walked out with his arm around Claire. They walked by the security guard and
smiled at him. The guard smiled back, "Have a good night, Dr. Tate."
"Oh, I think I will," Ed answered back as they walked out the glass doors
and Claire hit him in the ribs.
****
The occupant in the car watched as the two scientists made their way to the
van. Ed opened the door for Claire to get in and then ran around to the
driver's side. The old VW van drove off with its unsuspecting occupants.
The car followed behind, but not to close. The driver picked up his cell phone
and called in. "Dr. Tate has just left the lab, he's not alone."
"We'll just have to be patient. Let me know when his company leaves,"
the voice answered back.
The driver hung up his phone and followed the van to Ed's apartment. He parked
the car and waited.
****
There was a trail of clothing that went from the front door of Ed's apartment
to his bed. Claire sat behind Ed who sat straight up in bed. Claire was still
in her bra and panties and Ed had his boxers on. Claire massaged his scalp,
"How does that feel?"
"Hmmmm," Ed sighed.
Claire traced the outlines of his ears with both hands and then moved to his
face, tracing the cheekbones. Her hands then moved to cup the back of his head.
She applied light pressure to the hollow areas in his neck. One hand gripped
his chin and pulled his head towards her to stretch out his neck allowing her
to apply more pressure on the points used during acupuncture. Claire did this
for about five minutes.
"Whoa…Claire, I'm feeling better already," Ed mused.
"It's not over yet," Claire pressed her finger on the spot right between
his eyebrows for about a minute and then made circular motions with her fingers
on his temples.
Ed felt all the tension leave his body and he relaxed even more, "You do
this for Darien?"
"No, now be quiet," Claire moved from behind Ed and pushed him down onto
the bed, "Close your eyes." Claire continued her massage until all
the tention in his body was gone.
Ed wrapped his shaking arms around her.
"Open your eyes, hon," Claire said. She
kissed lightly around his mouth.
Ed opened his eyes, "Damn, Claire, where'd you
learn all that?"
"How do you feel now?" Claire asked.
"Like I could sleep for a year," Ed paused, "I think you broke
me," Ed looked at Claire and smiled, "Guess I had a lot of tension
built up in me?"
"You did," Claire paused; she pushed the hair from his face and looked
into his eyes. "You've been through a lot this past week; you're
overworking yourself with the gland project and trying to perfect the serum.
You need to relax. Your body still needs time to
heal."
Ed kissed Claire. His tongue pushed her lips and she opened her mouth. His
hands worked on the clasps of her bra and soon that too joined the collection
of clothes on the floor.
Claire lifted her head, "Dr. Tate, what do you have in mind?"
Ed flipped them over so now he was on top of Claire. "Payback," Ed said
with a sexy grin and wiggled his brow.
"Hmmm…paybacks are good," Claire purred.
****
Early the next morning, Claire woke to soft kisses on her shoulder. "Hmmm…good morning, Ed."
"Good morning, Claire." Ed kissed the back of her neck then
started on her other shoulder.
"Oh, Ed…feels so good." Claire mumbled.
"I'm not done yet," Ed mimicked Claire from the night before.
Sometime later, Claire rested her head on Ed's chest and he wrapped his arms
around her.
TBC….
