Author's Notes: Ooh I'm having so much fun! I absolutely adore Jesse; I
just don't know why I can't seem to stop torturing him. Hmm.
goldstranger: You're absolutely right.
szhismine: When? Very, very soon. (
brigitta: I hope this next chapter will answer your question. (
****************
Shalimar swore under her breath as she skidded to a stop; only to inhale a lungful of exhaust fumes and she winced at the screeching sounds the tyres made against the asphalt as the four-wheel-drive sped away. She couldn't believe they she had let them get away and she was positive that they had just witnessed a possible kidnapping.
"So what do we do now?" She asked out loud as Brennan stopped beside her. When he didn't answer, she turned to look at him and immediately noticed the perplexed look on his face as he stared into the distance at the gradually disappearing Cherokee. "Brennan?"
"You said all the New Mutants who disappeared, they all reported sick?"
Shalimar frowned. "That's what all their friends said, yeah. Why do you ask?"
Without answering, Brennan broke into a run toward the house, his long coat billowing as he increased his speed.
Okay, so now I'm confused, Shalimar thought. What the hell. She followed suit.
*****************
By late afternoon, Jesse was in serious pain. He had tried everything in the book, tried every remedy he knew, tried sleeping the pain off, hell, he even tried meditating like Emma always did whenever she felt stressed, but the persistent, nagging ache seemed to worsen instead of disappearing like what any other normal stomach ache would do after a couple of hours.
Shit, this is unreal, he thought as he sat at the computer console, staring blankly at the screen. He supposed the best thing he should do right now was to lie down, but he had tried to earlier and strangely, it seemed to make the pain worse if that was even possible. Emma was still banging away in the kitchen, God only knew what she was doing, going to all troubles fixing dinner when they could just eat out, Adam was nowhere to be seen and so were Shalimar and Brennan. Good. The less people around him, the better.
Right now, Jesse was in the middle of upgrading the Sanctuary's security system, a thing he'd been working on since the past couple of weeks. Well, I'm TRYING to, if not for this goddamn pain in my stomach, he thought irritably.
Well, indigestion or not, he'd better get the sensory software worked out or else Adam would have a fit. If he succeeded, the program would soon be able to detect possible intruders within a 30-mile radius, sending out sensory radioactive waves that would single out wavelengths of the same frequency of any incoming craft, be it by sea or by air.
At the same time, he was also looking out for Brennan and Shalimar, staying in contact in case they needed anything. He had wanted to join them earlier, but later decided not to. Running around, tracking down kidnappers and kidnappees would simply take too much energy and energy was what he didn't have much of right now.
Right, he thought in satisfaction as he typed in one final command. I think that's about it. Let's see if this works.
He activated the sensory device, and tested the alarm that would, well, basically deafen everyone in the Sanctuary and relatively put everything on alert.
He froze when all the alarms went off. Thankfully, he had lowered the volume considerably earlier so that he would be the only one who could hear it. But the tingling sensation was there; and he grew even tenser when the alarm didn't go off in the next 5 seconds. That means. . . it's not a false alarm. Are we under attack? Now?
Upset stomach forgotten, Jesse leaned forward, and after clicking furiously for a few seconds, he brought up onto the screen the security video. Studying the radar, he was perplexed to see there was nothing there. No aircraft, no hostile forces on the way, no nothing. Just air and water. Sanctuary was safe.
So where are all these waves coming from? He wondered. The alarm was still going red, blinking rapidly as if they were really seconds away from being attacked.
This is so weird, he thought. Then, his confusion quickly turned into annoyance. Great. This can only mean that I've screwed up again. Now I have to start all over again.
Shaking his head at his futile effort, he deactivated the alarm and set to work, starting from scratch. Little did he know that the sensory detector had been working just fine all along.
******************
"What are you looking for?" Shalimar looked around the messy living room.
"I think I've seen that GS agent, that dark-haired woman-somewhere," Brennan answered distractedly. He swept his eyes across the room, wrinkling his nose in distaste. One thing he didn't like was messy, cluttered rooms. It made searching for evidence almost impossible. The GSA had probably turned the place upside down to make it look like the usual kidnappings. If what he suspected was right. . .
"You have? Where?" Now Shalimar was curious.
"Like I said-somewhere." True, he may be over-reacting, but there was no harm in trying to find out who she was. Hell, they were SUPPOSED to find that out for God's sake. "Now quit standing around and help me look for clues."
Shalimar rolled her eyes. She yawned and flipped her long hair carelessly over her shoulder. "Like. . .this?" She swooped down and picked up a long piece of what looked like a thread. No, wait. Brennan straightened up and plucked it out of the smiling feral's fingers.
It was a long strand of black hair.
"Bingo," he said, breaking into a grin.
***************
"Jesse!" Jesse winced at the shrillness of Emma's voice. Must have been a cheerleader in high school. Hah, a cheerleader. Emma. That's hard to imagine. "Jesse, come on down!"
"Coming," he answered wearily and letting out a sigh, he lifted the parallel bar and slid out of the station. He still couldn't figure out what had gone wrong with the software. As he waited for the computer to properly shut down, at the same time keeping a look-out for any sign of malfunction, which he would have to take car of later anyway, he unconsciously felt his stomach. It had been behaving itself for the past half hour and he hoped it'd last. He couldn't afford to get sick now; not when there was so much to do, with the missing New Mutants and all. Plus, he had a flawed security system to fix. And for the first time that day, he felt a pang of hunger.
Speaking of hunger, Jesse suddenly found himself thinking about Evie. He had to admit, he had never been as smitten about anyone as he had been with her. He wondered if she was thinking about him or if he would ever see her again. Already he was thinking about going to the club again, tonight, in the hope that he would run into her again.
Now, wouldn't that be nice, he thought wistfully.
"Jesse!!!"
Rolling his eyes, Jesse threw his hands up in the air. "Coming, mother!!!"
**************
"Where's Jesse? Is he home?" That was the first question Brennan asked the moment he stalked into the Sanctuary, Shalimar close behind him. She's forced him to tell her what was going on and though she knew better than to make any assumptions, she also shared Brennan's suspicions. If the girl was really the GS agent, and if she had made a move on Jesse that night, well, Shalimar didn't know what to make of it. . .but it's got to be something not good, she thought.
Emma emerged from the kitchen, holding a platter of what looked like fried fish dumplings. After placing the food on the table, she wiped her hands on her apron and held a hand out. "Well, if this is what you call home, then I guess he is. He's upstairs, fixing something on the computer. Why, is something the matter?"
Shalimar sent Brennan a sharp look and he walked off to find Jesse.
*******************
Jesse was just about to go down the stairs when the pain struck again, and it struck hard. With a grunt, he abruptly doubled over and would have fallen if he hadn't grabbed onto the wall.
"Oh shit," he muttered through clenched teeth. He felt like someone had bludgeoned him in the gut with a sledgehammer; the pain was excruciating. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead as he struggled to fight the overwhelming sickness.
From the distance he could hear sounds of laughter and approaching footsteps. Brennan and Shalimar must be back, he thought sickly.
At last, Jesse was finally able to take a breath without wanting to pass out, and very, very slowly, he straightened up gingerly keeping one hand tightly clasped to his stomach.
*OK, so now I'm freaked out. Just what the hell was that?* The last time he had ever felt a pain like that was when he had his appendix taken out. *And that was like when I was what, twelve?*
Just when he thought the worst was over, another shard of pain stabbed through his stomach like this and it took Jesse every bit of effort to keep from crying out. His legs threatened to turn into jelly and in his pain, Jesse had to lean against the wall for support, trembling as another violent cramp seized him.
Oh God, please, make this stop, he groaned silently.
"Hey, there you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Jesse raised his head slowly, whimpering softly. He couldn't help it. It hurt too much. Brennan was standing at the foot of the stairs, staring at him expectantly with what looked like a smile of relief on his face. "I've been meaning to ask you-"
If only Jesse was listening.
"Jesse?" Brennan's smile disappeared.
Letting out a loud moan, Jesse groped blindly for the wall, struggling frantically to regain his balance, but the pain was too much. His trembling legs teetered precariously on the edge of the stairs.
Brennan's mouth dropped open in horror.
Jesse's knees buckled. I think massing would be a good idea, he thought dazedly as he watched the long, endless flight of stairs rush up to meet him. Like, now. But it was too late. As he tumbled down the stairs, Jesse was dimly aware of someone shouting his name, he wanted to answer, God he wanted to so much, but the crack his head made when it hit the bottom was so loud he could feel it reverberate in his skull.
"I think I've been plugged," Jesse Kilmartin whispered softly as Brennan's panicked face came into view. And then everything went black.
goldstranger: You're absolutely right.
szhismine: When? Very, very soon. (
brigitta: I hope this next chapter will answer your question. (
****************
Shalimar swore under her breath as she skidded to a stop; only to inhale a lungful of exhaust fumes and she winced at the screeching sounds the tyres made against the asphalt as the four-wheel-drive sped away. She couldn't believe they she had let them get away and she was positive that they had just witnessed a possible kidnapping.
"So what do we do now?" She asked out loud as Brennan stopped beside her. When he didn't answer, she turned to look at him and immediately noticed the perplexed look on his face as he stared into the distance at the gradually disappearing Cherokee. "Brennan?"
"You said all the New Mutants who disappeared, they all reported sick?"
Shalimar frowned. "That's what all their friends said, yeah. Why do you ask?"
Without answering, Brennan broke into a run toward the house, his long coat billowing as he increased his speed.
Okay, so now I'm confused, Shalimar thought. What the hell. She followed suit.
*****************
By late afternoon, Jesse was in serious pain. He had tried everything in the book, tried every remedy he knew, tried sleeping the pain off, hell, he even tried meditating like Emma always did whenever she felt stressed, but the persistent, nagging ache seemed to worsen instead of disappearing like what any other normal stomach ache would do after a couple of hours.
Shit, this is unreal, he thought as he sat at the computer console, staring blankly at the screen. He supposed the best thing he should do right now was to lie down, but he had tried to earlier and strangely, it seemed to make the pain worse if that was even possible. Emma was still banging away in the kitchen, God only knew what she was doing, going to all troubles fixing dinner when they could just eat out, Adam was nowhere to be seen and so were Shalimar and Brennan. Good. The less people around him, the better.
Right now, Jesse was in the middle of upgrading the Sanctuary's security system, a thing he'd been working on since the past couple of weeks. Well, I'm TRYING to, if not for this goddamn pain in my stomach, he thought irritably.
Well, indigestion or not, he'd better get the sensory software worked out or else Adam would have a fit. If he succeeded, the program would soon be able to detect possible intruders within a 30-mile radius, sending out sensory radioactive waves that would single out wavelengths of the same frequency of any incoming craft, be it by sea or by air.
At the same time, he was also looking out for Brennan and Shalimar, staying in contact in case they needed anything. He had wanted to join them earlier, but later decided not to. Running around, tracking down kidnappers and kidnappees would simply take too much energy and energy was what he didn't have much of right now.
Right, he thought in satisfaction as he typed in one final command. I think that's about it. Let's see if this works.
He activated the sensory device, and tested the alarm that would, well, basically deafen everyone in the Sanctuary and relatively put everything on alert.
He froze when all the alarms went off. Thankfully, he had lowered the volume considerably earlier so that he would be the only one who could hear it. But the tingling sensation was there; and he grew even tenser when the alarm didn't go off in the next 5 seconds. That means. . . it's not a false alarm. Are we under attack? Now?
Upset stomach forgotten, Jesse leaned forward, and after clicking furiously for a few seconds, he brought up onto the screen the security video. Studying the radar, he was perplexed to see there was nothing there. No aircraft, no hostile forces on the way, no nothing. Just air and water. Sanctuary was safe.
So where are all these waves coming from? He wondered. The alarm was still going red, blinking rapidly as if they were really seconds away from being attacked.
This is so weird, he thought. Then, his confusion quickly turned into annoyance. Great. This can only mean that I've screwed up again. Now I have to start all over again.
Shaking his head at his futile effort, he deactivated the alarm and set to work, starting from scratch. Little did he know that the sensory detector had been working just fine all along.
******************
"What are you looking for?" Shalimar looked around the messy living room.
"I think I've seen that GS agent, that dark-haired woman-somewhere," Brennan answered distractedly. He swept his eyes across the room, wrinkling his nose in distaste. One thing he didn't like was messy, cluttered rooms. It made searching for evidence almost impossible. The GSA had probably turned the place upside down to make it look like the usual kidnappings. If what he suspected was right. . .
"You have? Where?" Now Shalimar was curious.
"Like I said-somewhere." True, he may be over-reacting, but there was no harm in trying to find out who she was. Hell, they were SUPPOSED to find that out for God's sake. "Now quit standing around and help me look for clues."
Shalimar rolled her eyes. She yawned and flipped her long hair carelessly over her shoulder. "Like. . .this?" She swooped down and picked up a long piece of what looked like a thread. No, wait. Brennan straightened up and plucked it out of the smiling feral's fingers.
It was a long strand of black hair.
"Bingo," he said, breaking into a grin.
***************
"Jesse!" Jesse winced at the shrillness of Emma's voice. Must have been a cheerleader in high school. Hah, a cheerleader. Emma. That's hard to imagine. "Jesse, come on down!"
"Coming," he answered wearily and letting out a sigh, he lifted the parallel bar and slid out of the station. He still couldn't figure out what had gone wrong with the software. As he waited for the computer to properly shut down, at the same time keeping a look-out for any sign of malfunction, which he would have to take car of later anyway, he unconsciously felt his stomach. It had been behaving itself for the past half hour and he hoped it'd last. He couldn't afford to get sick now; not when there was so much to do, with the missing New Mutants and all. Plus, he had a flawed security system to fix. And for the first time that day, he felt a pang of hunger.
Speaking of hunger, Jesse suddenly found himself thinking about Evie. He had to admit, he had never been as smitten about anyone as he had been with her. He wondered if she was thinking about him or if he would ever see her again. Already he was thinking about going to the club again, tonight, in the hope that he would run into her again.
Now, wouldn't that be nice, he thought wistfully.
"Jesse!!!"
Rolling his eyes, Jesse threw his hands up in the air. "Coming, mother!!!"
**************
"Where's Jesse? Is he home?" That was the first question Brennan asked the moment he stalked into the Sanctuary, Shalimar close behind him. She's forced him to tell her what was going on and though she knew better than to make any assumptions, she also shared Brennan's suspicions. If the girl was really the GS agent, and if she had made a move on Jesse that night, well, Shalimar didn't know what to make of it. . .but it's got to be something not good, she thought.
Emma emerged from the kitchen, holding a platter of what looked like fried fish dumplings. After placing the food on the table, she wiped her hands on her apron and held a hand out. "Well, if this is what you call home, then I guess he is. He's upstairs, fixing something on the computer. Why, is something the matter?"
Shalimar sent Brennan a sharp look and he walked off to find Jesse.
*******************
Jesse was just about to go down the stairs when the pain struck again, and it struck hard. With a grunt, he abruptly doubled over and would have fallen if he hadn't grabbed onto the wall.
"Oh shit," he muttered through clenched teeth. He felt like someone had bludgeoned him in the gut with a sledgehammer; the pain was excruciating. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead as he struggled to fight the overwhelming sickness.
From the distance he could hear sounds of laughter and approaching footsteps. Brennan and Shalimar must be back, he thought sickly.
At last, Jesse was finally able to take a breath without wanting to pass out, and very, very slowly, he straightened up gingerly keeping one hand tightly clasped to his stomach.
*OK, so now I'm freaked out. Just what the hell was that?* The last time he had ever felt a pain like that was when he had his appendix taken out. *And that was like when I was what, twelve?*
Just when he thought the worst was over, another shard of pain stabbed through his stomach like this and it took Jesse every bit of effort to keep from crying out. His legs threatened to turn into jelly and in his pain, Jesse had to lean against the wall for support, trembling as another violent cramp seized him.
Oh God, please, make this stop, he groaned silently.
"Hey, there you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Jesse raised his head slowly, whimpering softly. He couldn't help it. It hurt too much. Brennan was standing at the foot of the stairs, staring at him expectantly with what looked like a smile of relief on his face. "I've been meaning to ask you-"
If only Jesse was listening.
"Jesse?" Brennan's smile disappeared.
Letting out a loud moan, Jesse groped blindly for the wall, struggling frantically to regain his balance, but the pain was too much. His trembling legs teetered precariously on the edge of the stairs.
Brennan's mouth dropped open in horror.
Jesse's knees buckled. I think massing would be a good idea, he thought dazedly as he watched the long, endless flight of stairs rush up to meet him. Like, now. But it was too late. As he tumbled down the stairs, Jesse was dimly aware of someone shouting his name, he wanted to answer, God he wanted to so much, but the crack his head made when it hit the bottom was so loud he could feel it reverberate in his skull.
"I think I've been plugged," Jesse Kilmartin whispered softly as Brennan's panicked face came into view. And then everything went black.