Brennan turned around after watching Shalimar fall to the ground. He found himself looking at a gorgeous petite, brunette woman. She had slanted emerald green eyes and a quirky smile on her deep red lips. She raised her eyebrows at him as he turned back round. She reached down to the ground to pick up her bag from the forest floor and slung the strap over her shoulder.

Brennan looked down at Shalimar's body. He was suddenly feeling faint and a huge wash of guilt rolled over him. He ran over to Shalimar and knelt, almost fell down next to her. His hand brushed against the side of her face.

'What the hell is going on? Shal? Shal?' His voice rose with panic as she didn't wake. He pulled the dart from the side of her neck and threw it to the ground.

She laid her hand on his shoulder gently and as he looked up her eyes flashed a brilliant blue. They glowed and sparkled and a beam abruptly started flowing from her eyes into his. He slowly stood up and faced her. Eventually the beam broke itself off and the blue light gradually faded into the green of the brunettes eyes.

Brennan blinked hard as though trying to clear his vision of some haze, some obscurity. But when he opened his eyes again they were different. They looked nothing like the eyes of Brennan. They had changed, become cruel all over again. The warmth, the vague hint of laughter that was usually present in Brennan's eyes had disappeared.

He looked down at Shalimar and then bent and picked her up roughly. The brunette smirked as she watched Brennan carry Shalimar over to the cabin doorway. He used her feet to push the door open and walked inside, his form disappearing into the darkness.

***

The car pulled into the garage. The front door opened and Adam was greeted by the relieved faces of Emma and Jesse. They had been waiting for him all night and both were exhausted.

Adam was tired. He had been driving all night without a break, desperate to get back to Sanctuary to find out what had happened to Shalimar and Brennan. The business he had been dealing with would have kept him out of town for a couple of days and it was important but they were more so.

He walked into the media room and sat down at one the chairs while Jesse and Emma leant against the tabletop. Emma was dead on her feet from being up all night. They hadn't dared go to sleep, either of them just in case Shalimar needed help. They still didn't know why Brennan had done what he did or where he had taken Shalimar. Jesse had gone through denial, anger, panic, and was now stuck on anxiety. He had calmed down when Emma had made him aware of the fact that it wasn't helping anyone. He just wanted to find Shalimar. After that he would decided whether he was gonna kick Brennan's ass or not.

Adam looked at Emma. They both knew what Jesse was going through. In some ways it had to be worse than what they were feeling. Adam had known Shalimar for a longer space of time but Jesse and Shalimar's bond was so much stronger than that. They were brother and sister in all but actual blood. They had talked about everything with each other. They had comforted each other when no one else could, including Adam. They were pretty much the same age, it was only to be expected. Shalimar was Jesse's wild side and he was her subdued one. They balanced each other perfectly. Emma had envied their relationship in the beginning. She had never been that close to anyone in her life. But she had gotten over it. She had developed her own relationships with the two of them and in her own way she was close to them too. Which was what was confusing and worrying her. She had tried looking for Shalimar with her telempathic abilities. Since she had joined Mutant X her powers had gotten stronger through practice. And finding people that she knew as closely as Shalimar and Brennan was normally easy. But she hadn't picked up anything, or atleast anything useful. Shalimar had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth and Brennan's signal was so warped she couldn't deduce anything from it.

Jesse hadn't had any more luck with technology. After trying the com rings he had attempted to track the car but Brennan knew exactly what he was doing. He had de-activated the cars tracer and Jesse had had to turn to other methods. He had checked all the hospital and police station records within the area but had discovered nothing. They had both, with the car just...disappeared.

***

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get shot of all the blurriness. When she opened her eyes again she could make out slightly less vague outlines of objects in the room. She blinked some more until she could make out actual shapes.

'Well, that was so worth it,' she muttered under her breath as she swiveled her eyes around. There was nothing to see. Literally. There were a couple of lines of bright light, low to the ground, presumably where doors were to be located. They gave some of the shapes in the room shadows but other than that the whole blinking a lot had done nothing to improve her situation.

She tried to sit up but found that she couldn't move her arms or her legs. She lifted her head and looked down the length of her body. Her legs were attached to the table she was lying on by thick steel bindings. She tried putting some serious pressure on the bonds but they weren't budging so she gave up. There was no point in wasting perfectly good energy on a lost cause. She was gonna save up some reserves of strength until she saw Brennan and then she was gonna use it all up in one go.

She closed her eyes suddenly as the door opened and an overhead light was turned on. She gradually opened her eyelids slightly and squinted. The light was right above her head and its beams were shining right into her pupils. Eventually she managed to open her eyes enough to see what was going on in the room.

A shadow drew across her face and the light was shut out just as quickly as it had been turned on. She looked up into the cold eyes of Brennan. He looked so different from his usual self. Anyone else would never have known that he had become more aggressive, more violent, more harsh just by looking at him. But Shalimar knew him too well. She could always tell when something was bothering him and she could usually tell whether to ask about it or let it go. That had been happening more and more over the weeks since their almost kiss. They had stopped talking as much as they used to. Things had become more awkward and tense between them and small talk had become a regular conversation topic. But that didn't mean she didn't still notice when something was...off.

Brennan looked down at the face and the worried eyes looking up at him. He stared for a minute and then stood up straight and walked back out of the room, turning the light off and slamming the door behind him as he went.

Shalimar was left in the darkness as a single tear rolled down her face and dripped onto the steel table. The clank as it fell echoed into the darkened recesses of the room.