Collateral Damage: Chapter 1

See Prologue for disclaimer and other story notes.

Missing Pieces

~*~

"Brennan."

The elemental rolled away from the voice and tried to ignore it. It seemed like he had just gone to sleep, and he really had no intention of waking up any time soon.

The voice, however, was persistent. "Brennan!"

He finally opened his eyes, but refused to move more than that. "What?" he ground out, starting at the wall.

A hand touched his shoulder, coaxing him onto his back. The voice, which Brennan had finally identified as Adam, continued, "Are you awake?"

Brennan glared at him silently through half-closed eyes.

"Okay, okay, message received," Adam said, smiling slightly before growing serious. "I need to ask you about Jesse."

That finally brought Brennan's brain awake and he pushed himself into a sitting position. "What about him? Is something wrong?"

"I hope not, but he hasn't come home yet."

"That's not all that unusual," Brennan responded slowly, squinting at the clock. It was almost 10 am. Okay, that was unusual. He felt the uneasiness that had plagued him the night before come trickling back. "He didn't call?"

"No," Adam answered, concern on his features. "And I've been trying to contact him for an hour with no response. I can't even locate him with his comm link inactive." After a pause he continued, "Shalimar said you seemed a little reluctant to leave him last night. Anything you can tell me?"

Brennan shrugged, frowning. "I can't really explain it, Adam. The girl he was with certainly didn't seem like a threat, but…I don't know. I just got a bad feeling. I chalked it up to those overprotective instincts everybody says I have." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "Maybe I shouldn't have."

"That could be all it was. We don't know what's going on yet." Adam patted his shoulder and turned to go. "Get dressed and you and the girls can go find him. If he's fine, you can yell at him for me."

~*~

Three hours later Brennan was ready to yell at anyone who came within ten feet of him. But Jesse wasn't on the receiving end, because Jesse had yet to be found.

Emma trailed behind Brennan, trying not to set off his temper. She didn't need her powers to know that he was worried in addition to feeling guilty for leaving Jesse alone. A worried Brennan often translated into an angry Brennan.

She was trying once more to get a psychic hit off of Jesse, without success, when Brennan startled her by abruptly slamming a hand into the outer wall of the nightclub. She jumped. Brennan noticed and managed to look apologetic. "Sorry Emma." Then he turned away from her and spoke quietly to the deserted parking lot, "Where the hell are you, Jess?"

She risked stepping closer, placing a comforting hand on his back. "We'll find him."

He was silent and she followed his gaze to the one lonely car in the lot. It was exactly where Brennan had parked it the night before; exactly where he'd left it when Shal had picked him up. There was no indication that Jesse had touched it.

They'd gone over it first, then gone inside to find the nightclub's owner. She'd given them nothing helpful except the addresses of the bartender and the bouncer. Shalimar had gone off to find the bartender, who lived nearby. That left Brennan and Emma to search in the immediate area of the club, which consisted mostly of alleys and dumpsters. Happy as they were to have not found their friend there, they were no closer to answers than they had been three hours earlier.

"Guys?" Shalimar's voice came through their comm links.

"We're here, Shal. Go ahead," Emma responded.

"The bartender remembers Jesse—though he remembers the girl more. Apparently she was a real knockout."

"That she was," Brennan commented.

"I meant that literally. He commented that Jess must be a real lightweight because he was very drunk on very little alcohol."

"What?"

Emma added her protest to Brennan's. "That doesn't seem like Jesse."

"I'm with you there, but this is what the bartender told me. He was about to take Jesse's keys, but the girl took them instead. She said she'd drive him home. He got the impression they knew each other well; he was surprised when I told him they'd just met. They left together around 2."

"Driving him home?" Brennan said incredulously.

"That's what she told him."

"Had he had anything to drink before you guys got here?" Emma asked.

"No. And he was plenty sober when I left."

"Okay, we've got to find this girl," Shal put in.

"Fiona," Brennan added. "Or at least that's what she said her name was."

Adam cut in then from Sanctuary. "All right. Emma, you meet up with Shalimar and you two find the bouncer. Maybe he can tell you what kind of car they left in. Brennan, leave them the car and bring the Helix back here. I want you looking through the database; she could be a mutant."

Brennan sighed. "On my way."

~*~

Adam met Brennan in the hanger and led him straight to a computer. "I narrowed it down for you," he said, pulling up the database. "Blond females."

Brennan looked at the number of results. "You call that narrow?"

"Well I didn't get a hit off the name that matched the description. So she either gave you a fake name, changed her appearance, or both. You can start with the blondes."

"Or she might not even be in here. This could be a complete waste of time!"

"Brennan, I know you're worried. We all are. But right now, the best chance we have of finding Jesse is first finding this girl. You're the only one who's seen her."

"I know," he sighed. "I know." He obediently reached for the mouse and began to scroll through the images. He didn't want to be here, staring at a screen. He wanted to be out there, doing something active to help find his friend. But he knew Adam was right.

As he kept his eyes on the screen he spoke to the older man, "What are you thinking, Adam?"

There was a sigh in response. "I don't know. I hope we're overreacting."

"But you don't believe that we are."

"No. I might have if the bartender hadn't mentioned that he seemed to drunk for the amount of alcohol he'd consumed. When you add that she was much more sober and said she was taking him with her…"

"You think she slipped him something?"

"Maybe. Or she did something. There are several mutant powers that might make him seem drunk to an observer."

Brennan shut his eyes briefly, then refocused on the computer. Blond after pretty blond stared back at him; none of them had been at the bar the night before. As he worked he mentally went back over everything that had happened. He couldn't get what Adam had just said out of his mind. "Now that I think about it," he admitted a few minutes later, turning to look at Adam as he spoke, "she could have done something even before I left. He wasn't drunk, but he did seem a little dazed. It's just so typical for Jesse to act so infatuated that I didn't think much of it."

"Well, that could still be normal behavior for Jesse. But it could be something like pheromones." Adam came over to Brennan's computer. "Let's limit the search to ferals. Maybe we'll get lucky." As he typed he glanced at Brennan. "Hindsight is always 20/20, you know. This isn't your fault."

Brennan watched him for a few seconds before smiling slightly. "Does all of this emotional baggage just naturally come with leadership? Because if it does, you can keep it."

Adam returned his smile. "You get used to it."

Adam moved away, leaving Brennan with more blondes. But another half hour of ferals brought him no "Fiona." His eyes were starting to hurt from looking at the screen when Adam's console signaled an incoming message. The leader excused himself and headed for the privacy of his own room. Brennan stared after him for a moment before deciding it was time for a break.

He abandoned the computer to quietly follow Adam. The older man had left the door ajar, making it easy for Brennan to eavesdrop. He could barely see the screen on which a scrambled image was displayed. But he could hear the conversation clearly.

"Adam. It's been a long time," came a female voice.

Adam was squinting at the image. "Who is this?"

"Why Adam, I'm insulted." She didn't sound insulted. She sounded smug…and dangerous. She continued, "I expect you'll figure it out soon enough. I just called to let you know that your people are on the wrong side of town."

"What?"

"You lost something, correct?"

Brennan tensed and saw Adam do the same. "What do you know about it?" he demanded.

She laughed softly. "Everything. As I was saying, your little girls are completely off the radar. Would you like a hint?"

Adam was staring at the image with a deadly intensity Brennan hadn't seen in a while. "If you've hurt him…" he threatened, voice low and even.

"I suppose 'hurt' is a relative term," she responded flippantly. "Try the hotel down on Madison Avenue. Room 512."

"Who are you?"

"Patience, Adam. Retrieve what is yours. Then we can talk about old times, if that genius IQ hasn't figured it out yet. And I'll be happy to give you my demands."

"Demands? What the—" he was cut off as she closed the communication.

"Adam?" Brennan finally made his presence known.

Adam turned to him, not even bothering with a reprimand. He didn't seem all that surprised that he had overheard. "I don't know. Go check it out."

Brennan didn't need to be told twice. He was out the door and halfway to the Helix before Adam yelled after him, "But be careful! I don't want two of you missing!"

~*~

To be continued

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