Brennan rose slowly from the floor. Rubbing his eyes to awake he pushed off the cover and stood up. Suddenly, his memories of the previous day came rushing back to him and he realized where he was. He stood motionless, unsure of what to do next. The previous night he had thought about going back to the Sanctuary after doing some more hunting around the campus for clues. However, Emma had insisted on helping him. Unfortunately she turned out to be more of a hindrance for Brennan as wherever they were he constantly found himself watching her. In the end they had no clues from the search as Emma found none and Brennan never got around to looking in the first place (although he didn't admit this to Emma). He had walked her back to her room, where she had pounced the question of where he was to stay for the night. Brennan saw that it had been too late for him to go back to the Sanctuary and then return to the campus in the morning (for a hopefully more productive search) and therefore told her that he'd just hang around some places and come back in the morning. Emma wouldn't accept this answer and had made him sleep in her room. He had slept on the floor while she slept on her bed. There was another bed, for Emma's roommate Charlene (who had spent the previous night at her boyfriend's place) which Emma told Brennan he could use but he declined after seeing the state of the bed. As Brennan leaned back on the desk behind him he began to watch Emma. She was still sleeping; her covers tucked up snugly to her neck, bearing only her face. The sun just reached her face and she began to move. Her eyes suddenly stopped flickering and opened wide, looking at Brennan. As soon as she did this, he slipped, falling back on the pen on the floor, amazed that she had awoken so soon. His head hit the foot of her desk and made a large noise.

"Oh my God! Brennan, are you okay?" Emma exclaimed, jumping out of bed and rushing over to him. She ran over to him and pulled him up from his arm, surprising Brennan at her strength. Now standing, Brennan looked down on her and saw she was wearing a loose white tank top with dark blue shorts. To Brennan, she looked even cuter than she had while sleeping. "I am so sorry," Emma said, referring to her stuff left on the ground.

"It's okay," Brennan told her.

"Does it hurt?" Emma asked, looking grimly at the side of his head that had struck the desk.

"Just a little," Brennan lied. In truth, it was hurting a lot, but Brennan didn't want her to feel worse than she was obviously feeling already.

Emma reached up and placed a hand on the hurt spot, and felt a tiny bump forming. Brennan looked at her and was caught by surprise when her eyes met his. Brennan expected her to move her gaze away, but her eyes stayed, both caught, captivated. Suddenly the door banged open, a dark, black-haired girl bursting in, breaking the moment, but not before she had noticed it. "Uh...sorry, I was, um, never mind," she said quickly and closed the door, putting herself out. Before Emma or Brennan could say anything, the door burst open again and she came inside, said a quick 'excuse me' to Brennan and pulled Emma outside. Since she hadn't closed the door Brennan managed to hear little bits of the conversation between Emma and the girl he presumed was Charlene. "Who is *he*?....What about Tucker?" from Charlene and "He's just a friend....What do you mean, what about Tucker?.....No I did not sleep with him Charlene!" from Emma.

Soon they both came back in. Charlene stretched out a hand to Brennan and said, "Hi, I'm Charlene, Emma's roommate."

He shook her hand. "Brennan."

"Well, I'll be off," she said, and did just that.

Emma and Brennan both stood awkwardly until Emma mumbled that she had better go and wash. Brennan nodded and waited until she had left the room before sighing and sitting back down on the floor.

*

Emma re-entered her bedroom a bit later, dressed with wet hair and found Brennan playing with his ring. "Are you hungry?' she asked.

"Uh.not really, just.the usual."

"Well," she said, "I don't actually have anything here that hasn't expired yet, but there is this place nearby."

"OK," Brennan said and stood up, putting on his coat.

"Wait!" Emma said suddenly.

"What?"

"Well.it's just.I don't want you to get the wrong impression of us.I mean, we're like - we don't really know each other very well, we just work together to find Kristin and Mary."

"Uh.yeah," Brennan nodded.

Emma followed Brennan out wondering whether she had done the right thing, but after what had happened this morning with Charlene she had wanted him to know theirs was a professional relationship. It had to be. After all, she did still have Tucker. It was just.when she had looked in his eyes.'Stop,' Emma ordered herself.

"You coming?" a voice called from outside.

"Yeah.I'm coming."

*

"You having that?" Emma asked, pointing to Brennan's second, untouched sandwich.

"No, you can have it if you want it," he said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Thanks," Emma said and quickly stuffed it down.

"You must be really hungry."

Emma nodded and smiled apologetically. "I'm finished now. I better not eat anymore."

"I'm finished too. You wanna leave."

"Yeah, just give me a sec. I'll go wash my hands."

"Yeah, okay," he said and watched her go. It was while sitting at the table and waiting for Emma that Brennan noticed a dark figure pass and walk inside the next-door building. Brennan hadn't noticed it before, but as he looked at it he saw that it matched well with Adam's description of one of the places that had been marked as a meeting place for the group who were supposedly doing the kidnapping. He shot up and raced into the building. Without thinking, he ran inside and ended up face to face with the man he had seen and three other guys behind him.

Brennan was thinking of what to do when one asked him, "So you the new guy?"

"Uh.yeah. Yes! I am the new guy."

"Well, do you have it?" another asked.

"Uh.."

"The information!" a third exclaimed.

"Oh course I have the information!" Brennan said.

A slow laugh came from behind him. From the fourth, who had been silent till now. "Liar," he muttered. "This one's a fake, boys. He doesn't have the tattoo." He grabbed Brennan and showed his back to them. Brennan wondered where the tattoo was supposed to be, but then he saw a black circle with an intricate design inside on the back of the mans neck.

"Get him!" one shouted and they all lunged towards him with curled fists.

Brennan was just fast enough to throw a ball of energy at two before they could reach him. As he fought the remaining two, he noticed that they were human as all they could fight with were their fists and couldn't match his bolts of energy. Soon they all lay still on the floor, but before Brennan could congratulate himself he heard footsteps coming close to him. Thinking it was the person they had mistaken him for, Brennan formed an energy ball and was about to aim it at the person, when he saw who it was. "Emma."

But, Emma couldn't reply. Her gaze was locked on Brennan's hand that had formed the blue ball of energy.