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….