Thanks so much for all the reviews. I'm sorry its taken a while for this chapter but life keeps on insisting on getting in the way. I think I've finally worked out what direction I'm gonna take this story in so the updates should come a little faster...hopefully. Please take the time to review all over again, they're what keep me sane whilst writing fan fictions.

***

Lucy lifted the hanger off the metal rack, carried the deep red top to one of the mirrors in the shop and held it up against her so she could see how it looked. It was the day after she had first met Thomas and she was relaxing, not expecting him to call her. Like most men he would probably get round to picking up the phone during the course of the next week but if it took too long she would send him a psionic signal to ring her. She couldn't wait around forever for one guy.

She placed the top back on the rail and walked toward the back where the shoes were located. The shops near the houses were small. Los Angeles may have been the home of everything big but the closer to Beverly Hills you got the more exclusive things became. She liked the small town atmosphere of the place, she could have stayed there for a lot longer if she wasn't being chased by people who wanted her dead or alive simply so they could experiment on her.

Her whole life had been one long marathon and she was only now getting the chance to relax. She had finally lost the people who were chasing her. She knew they would catch up to her again but she was being given a chance to breathe, a chance to fill her lungs ready for the next leg of the race.

She turned and saw Lucille, Thomas' housekeeper walk into the store. She had to admit, the woman was gorgeous and she certainly knew how to carry herself. She was confident in the way she moved, something not all people had. And it was even more rare for a woman to make it seem so natural. A lot of them looked like they were acting and it ended up seeming fake, not something that was so sexy.

Lucy was still none the wiser as to why there had been so much tension at the mansion the day before. She couldn't imagine what could have happened between the two of them that would cause their to be so many emotions flying around between them. From what Thomas had told her Lucille was his housekeeper and that was that. But ferals were good at reading body language and they were both projecting the exact opposite. Thomas and Lucille shared looks, ones which weren't just to do with a working relationship. They had something deeper, they were both feeling things for each other that friends didn't have. Lucy wasn't sure how that was going to play out in her strategy but she was not prepared to let maybes and what ifs get in the way of her plans. She wasn't cold-hearted to the romantic comedy idea of the employee and employer falling for each other but their affinity wasn't her priority.

She processed as quickly as possible the options she had. She didn't necessarily want to get caught in a conversation with Lucille. She didn't want to have to talk about her past, a topic which usually came up between people who didn't know each other very well. But she didn't want to seem rude. If Thomas found out that she had been a complete bitch to anyone his impression of her would be tainted for good and she would have to resort to her psionic abilities. And that took all the fun out of the game.

***

Shalimar walked into the shade provided by the clothes store. She had needed to get away from the house, more specifically Brennan. Things, despite their best efforts had fast become awkward and Shalimar couldn't hack the tension, not from Brennan, not after everything they had been through. She found it amazing how they could go through fire and water to save new mutants lives, they could face up to their scariest demons and yet they found it so hard to have a functional, normal relationship for five minutes. It was frustrating knowing that Brennan liked her and that she liked him and that, for reasons that she was beginning to doubt they were still apart. It was probably a good thing they had never told Jesse and Lexa. It would add far too many angles to the whole complicated affair.

She looked across the shop, scanning the racks of clothing for anything that stood out. Instead of being caught by an outfit though her eyes met those of Lucy. She was standing next to a rack of sale shoes at the back of the shop and her piercing gaze rested on Shalimar's face. She felt the colour rise to her cheeks slightly but managed to control the slight panic she felt in time to flash a smile at Lucy.

'Hi,' she called out, hoping that was the only conversation they would have to endure.

'Hi, how are you?' Lucy said. She didn't want to seem to hasty in leaving.

'I'm good. And you?' Shalimar replied. The courtesy conversation was fast turning into a full on one. And she didn't want that to happen. She rattled through a list of excuses she could make, hoping that Lucy wouldn't pick up on her immediate hostility.

'Fine.' The pause hung heavy in the air between them, each of them wishing desperately that they could be elsewhere, any where.

'Well, I have to do some shopping for food. I just stopped by quickly to pass some time,' Shalimar said in as polite a tone as she could muster.

'Yeah. I have some business of my own to attend to. Tell Thomas to call me,' Lucy said as she walked past Shalimar with a smile and out of the shop.

'I sure will,' Shalimar muttered under her breath as she allowed her shoulders to drop slightly in order to release tension. She rolled her eyes at how fake Lucy was. Maybe it was the feral in her that made her observe things other people didn't. She considered herself to be a pretty good judge of character anyway and Lucy was pushing all the wrong buttons.

***

'Hey Brennan?' He lowered his head from the breathtaking views to the comlink on his finger.

'Yeah Jesse?' he asked, looking around him to make sure he was alone.

'How's the assignment going?' Jesse asked. He was pretty sure from Shalimar's practically non existent answers on that subject that it wasn't going brilliantly.

'Its fine,' Brennan said quietly.

'Don't do that to me man.'

'Do what?' asked Brennan, frowning as he tried to work out whatever it was that Jesse was talking about.

'Clam up like Shalimar. I tried to talk to her about the mission and she got all quiet and five seconds later she had made her excuses and cut our connection. You cannot do that to me as well because Lexa and myself need to get the latest on Lucy,' Jesse said, his frustration beginning to show.

Brennan breathed in deeply and ran his hand through his hair, mussing it up slightly and not giving a damn. The whole situation had gotten so screwed up and he didn't know how to fix it. What Shalimar had said made sense but seeing her all the time and not being able to get close to her was killing him. Even when they were just friends they would still hug each other, and hit each other in a playful kinda way. They had never had a problem with physical contact and now there were these six foot thick walls of solid lead keeping them apart.

'Jess, I have to go. There's some stuff I need to do.'

'No, Brennan don...'

Silence filled the air as Brennan cut the link between the two of them and turned away from the amazing view.

***

'What?' Lexa asked as Jesse pushed open the door from the lab to the main room of Sanctuary a little too hard causing it to slam into the wall. She guessed that the conversation between him and Brennan hadn't gone well.

'He cut me off.'

'Ouch. I'm sure its nothing personal,' Lexa replied, trying to soothe Jesse.

'I know that. Something's going on with them, Brennan and Shalimar and I just want to know what it is.'

'Something to do with Lucy, or just something?'

Jesse smirked. Brennan and Shalimar had been edging around that subject for a while. He would have gotten sick of it already if it hadn't been that it was somewhat amusing. But now it was threatening the teams dynamic and whether they chose to do it themselves or had someone else, say him do it for them it needed to be resolved before it got them all in trouble.

***

Shalimar kicked the door open and walked through into the cool hall of the house. She dumped the bags on the floor and pushed the door closed with her hip. She had been shopping all morning, walking around the area, checking everything and everyone out. She had followed Lucy for a while but she just went into a local bar and sat down watching the sun move through the sky. Lucy hadn't met up with anyone in a trenchcoat and a large pair of sunglasses; she hadn't gone anywhere near Brennan; and she hadn't used her powers on anyone unless she was working them over with her mind. And Shalimar hadn't noticed anyone killing themselves to help Lucy so she assumed that she hadn't.

Her heels clicked against the floor as she made her way through to the kitchen with atleast half the bags clasped in her hands. The house contained next to nothing in the way of food so Shalimar had taken it upon herself to buy some. She could sense Brennan before she walked into the room. It was weird how she could always sense people she knew well. She had thought that it had only been Adam who she had shared that particular connection with, but when Jesse showed up and she got to know him better than she knew her own family she had discovered that it wasn't just Adam. It was the people she loved and it had been the same with Emma and as she gradually learnt to trust Lexa she was sure the same would apply.

She kept her eyes locked on the tiled floor beneath her feet as she walked into the room. She could feel Brennan's gaze on her head as she placed the bags on one of the counters. She started unpacking things, hoping that he would want to avoid anything that could be called a confrontation.

'Any particular reason why you're avoiding me as much as you are?'

She should have known that his silence was too good to be true. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked him straight in the eyes, trying to conjure some confidence in the words which were about to come out of her mouth.

'I'm not avoiding you.'

The corners of Brennan's mouth lifted into a smirk but he wasn't happy about any of it. He couldn't try to resolve the problems between him and Shalimar if she wasn't prepared to admit that there was a problem.

'Okay, so I'm avoiding you a little.'

Brennan stared at her, eyes wide. He had expected the whole denial thing to be a lot harder to crack. Shalimar was stubborn at the best of times and Brennan usually found it difficult to change her mind about the smallest things let alone the big ones.

'This is why I don't change my mind very often, because none of you take me seriously if I do,' she said, as she took in his look, exasperation beginning to show.

'I'm taking you seriously, Shal. I just don't know quite where all this is coming from,' Brennan exclaimed. He walked around the counter and stood next to Shalimar. His hand reached out for her arm and he felt her warm smooth skin under his fingertips. He turned her so that they were standing directly in front of each other and looked at her downturned face.

'Shal,' he whispered, not wanting to break the mood of the moment.

She lifted her head so that her eyes met his and in that moment she realised that no matter what the mission, now that she had found him she couldn't just let him go. She had waited so long for him and she was not prepared to walk away from him no matter how good and rational the reasons were.

She raised her hand to his cheeks and stroked her fingers across it. She could feel the faint roughness of dark stubble as it scratched gently at her skin. Tears threatened to spill over the edges of her eyelids but she was distracted by the feel of Brennan's hand running through her hair.

Both of them visibly started as the phone rang in the hallway.

'You should get it. It might be Lucy,' Shalimar said quietly. Brennan shuddered gently at the feel of her breath on his face.

'How about we let the machine pick it up?' he said, lowering his head towards hers.

They grew closer and closer till there were mere millimeters between the two of them. Just as their lips were about to meet Shalimar frowned and pulled back slightly.

'What?' Brennan asked.

Shalimar moved away from Brennan's grasp and walked out into the hallway. Her eyes were wide and she was finding it increasingly hard to breathe. She could hear Brennan's footsteps behind her but her mind didn't seem capable of processing the information and she jerked as he laid his hand on her shoulder.

She walked forward to the phone and pushed the button on the answer machine. The device whirred for a few seconds before the sound of a crackly long distance call came floating out of the speaker.

'This is a call for a Miss Shalimar Fox. This is the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. We're located on Madison and Fifth Avenue and we are currently looking after your father Nicholas Fox. You are listed as his only next of kin and we're sorry to tell you that he is in a coma at the moment...'

The noises of the world faded out and Shalimar stumbled backwards before falling to the floor, her eyes closed, her body still.