Disclaimer: don't own 'em, just borrowing for a bit. Only payment I get is the satisfaction of getting these damn stories out of my dreams, night after night after night. Can't stop thinking about them until they get written down!
Nightmares
By OughtaKnowBetter
It woke him out of a sound sleep.
His arm had started throbbing again. The pain-killers had worn off in four hours, just as promised, and it was three in the morning. Brennan knew that because the big red numbers were glaring at him from his clock, reminding him that there was a still a huge chunk of the night to be gotten through. His bed, usually very comfortable, had turned into the consistency of lumpy oatmeal with very hot milk poured over it. Brennan felt miserable.
Yesterday's scene reminded itself to him with every thudding heartbeat: the whole saving-the-world thing, the knife fight that ended up with a dead mutant and a bunch more on the run and Brennan Mulray with a slice in his arm that had taken the doc two hours to finish embroidering. The only remnants of the episode were a bottle of antibiotics, a bunch of pain-killers, and a few sour memories. Worth it? Not hardly.
He glanced at the bedside night stand. The pain-killers were there but the glass of water that Shalimar had left him had long since been polished off. Getting those horse pills down his throat without a drink would be near impossible. Brennan sighed. Which was worse, getting up for water or living with the pain? Compared to the cold air outside the blankets, the bed was warm and comfortable. Decision made: his arm wasn't that bad. He closed his eyes and rolled over.
And jumped up, yelping.
"Pain-killers," he grumbled, fumbling with the sling. Damn telekinetic, throwing knives at him from behind. Brennan had been lucky not to be sliced into two.
Then he sobered. Damn dead mutant. Brennan had been lucky he'd turned at the right moment to only catch it in the arm. Shalimar had taken the man down in the next breath, and Lexa had finished him. Then Jesse had dragged him out of the warehouse before the resulting explosion could turn all four of them into quivering mutant jelly. The flying shrapnel alone—pieces of shattered brick—would have skewered him had it not been for Jesse's quick phasing solid to deflect the tiny missiles.
Water. He could do this. The left-over narcotics in his system made Brennan stagger, but the bathroom was just down the hall. He clutched onto the door frame, pills in hand, and set out in search of something to wash them down with. Good thing he could navigate through Sanctuary with his eyes closed. He stumbled into the bathroom, and sent the pills down his throat with a sigh. Relief was mere moments away. He leaned against the wall of the bathroom, savoring the feel of the cold tile against his hot skin.
Then he heard something. It wasn't any of the usual Sanctuary sounds, the computer whirrings that went on all night, the sound of the ventilators circulating air in the cavernous abode, the multitudinous creaks that went along with living underground with metal expanding and contracting under the various heat and pressure stimuli. No, this was different. Adrenaline spurted, driving the last bits of narcotic from his system. Brennan Mulray came alert. There were little crackling sounds, little sparks echoing in the hallway not too far from here. Throbbing arm forgotten, Brennan went to investigate.
"What the—?" The words came out unbidden. Brennan had never seen anything like it.
The thing looked like a black smoke ball, roiling and billowing at the edges, casting off wispy dark smudges of soot to rise up hotly to the ceiling. It hovered some three feet off of the floor, cuddling against a bank of electrical wiring. Open wires shot off spikes of electricity that the thing eagerly inhaled. And it was growing.
Whatever it was, it didn't look good. "Hey!" Brennan shouted at it.
It noticed him. It must have ears somewhere in there, Brennan thought crazily. The thing advanced on him, sparks flying.
"Stay back," Brennan warned.
It didn't listen, despite the unseen ears. It grew in size, stretching its dimensions to a width large enough to swallow Brennan whole.
Brennan pulled his arm from its sling, discomfort forgotten. He twisted several million volts of electricity between his own fingers. "Stay back," he warned again. Whatever this thing was, it didn't have polite intentions. It sparked again, almost lazily sending an exploratory jolt in Brennan's direction.
Brennan shot back, fear adding extra juice. The thing exploded in a shower of sparks, knocking him off of his feet and slamming him up against the wall. He banged his arm and saw stars. The pain set his head to reeling. Good thing I'm already on the floor. I'd hate to fall down right now. The world faded briefly. Next thing he knew, there were teammates around. Finally.
"Brennan!" Shalimar was the first to get to him. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Intruder," he managed to gasp. "Big cloud thing."
Shalimar looked around, her eyes going feral, searching for the interloper that had hurt a member of her family, ready to tear it to shreds. She sniffed the air. There was nothing beyond the smell of ozone, courtesy of a bolt of lightning from Brennan.
Lexa padded up, yawning, hastily belting her robe. Her sleepiness vanished when she saw the state that Brennan was in. "Brennan?"
"He saw an intruder," Shalimar snapped. "Take care of him. I'm going to search Sanctuary."
"Get Jesse up first, to do a computer scan," Lexa advised.
"No need." Jesse stumbled toward the computer lab, stifling his own yawn. "I'm on it."
* * *
"Nothing." Shalimar was not happy. "Not a shred of evidence."
"I saw it," Brennan insisted, barely able to keep his eyes open now that the fresh set of pain-killers had kicked in. He leaned forward from his perch on the low divan, wishing that he was seated higher on a stool with his team mates, and could sit there without falling off. Being at eye-level with the others would have added weight to his story. But the others had picked him up from the floor and dumped him here, counting on the narcotics to keep him in place. Brennan refused to give in to the dizziness that the narcotics caused but stupidity was not in his nature; he stayed where he was put. "Dammit, I saw it."
"A big ball of smoke with eyes," Lexa nodded. At four in the morning it was hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. She jammed her hands into the over-sized pockets of her robe.
"It didn't have eyes," Brennan told her angrily. "And, yes, it was there. I didn't imagine it!"
"I don't know, Brennan," Jesse said doubtfully. "Those pain-killers are pretty potent stuff. And neither the computers or any of us found any hard evidence to back up your story."
"I saw it!"
"Not saying that you didn't," Jesse soothed. His eyes looked haunted, and Shalimar set her jaw in dismay. He'd been having those nightmares again, she deduced. Jesse'd been free of them for several months now, and she wondered what had set them off again. Shalimar was not a happy feral; first Jesse with recurrent nightmares and now Brennan seeing things. But Jesse kept on going. "Maybe you saw a spark, and in the dark it looked like something else."
"Jesse, it was alive and it was coming at me! I—"
"—need some sleep," Lexa cut him off firmly. "Whatever it was, it's not here now. Either you shot it to hell and back, or it never was here in the first place; I don't much care. It's not here now," she repeated. "Which means you go back to bed, so that I can go back to sleep."
"But—"
"Shalimar didn't find anything. Jesse didn't find anything. I didn't find anything," Lexa said firmly. "Good night, Brennan."
"But—"
"C'mon, guy," Jesse said, more to forestall an argument than anything else. "We're all tired. It was a killer day yesterday, and tomorrow is almost here. We'll puzzle it out in the morning."
"It is morning," Brennan pointed out.
"The real morning." Jesse stifled a yawn. "C'mon. You need a shoulder to lean on, getting back to your room?"
"Not in this lifetime," Brennan growled, his pride stung.
But Shalimar tucked him in anyway, setting another glass of water by his bed. She caressed his cheek, kissing him on the top of his dark head. "Good night, Brennan."
"I saw it."
"And I believe you. We'll sort it out tomorrow. Go to sleep."
"I saw it," Brennan repeated petulantly as his eyes closed in spite of himself.
* * *
Shalimar stepped out of the shower, toweling her blonde ringlets dry, feeling better than she had when she'd risen for the second time this morning. She was still worried about Brennan. It wasn't like the big elemental to hallucinate like that, even when flying high on prescription pain-killers. No, Brennan tended to simply drift off to sleep. There had been plenty of times after particularly nasty fights when he'd just cuddled into her lap, defenses down thanks to narcotic interference, showing glimpses of the sensitive soul within and allowing Shalimar to take care of him. Those were some of the nicest moments that Shalimar could think of.
No, seeing things just wasn't typical of her teammate. Sure, the computer security system hadn't found anything. And Shalimar herself couldn't find a trace of whatever it was that Brennan had shot at. But that didn't mean that Shalimar wasn't going to look again. And again. And maybe a third time, even with Lexa's sarcastic laugh ringing in her ears.
Shalimar froze. No, it wasn't Lexa's laughter that she heard, but it was a slithering sound. Something was here in the shower with her. She went feral.
Slither. And again. Shalimar focused in on it, seeking the source of the sound.
She didn't have far to look. They caught sight of each other in the same instant: Shalimar, and a large king cobra.
The snake hissed, drawing itself up so that its head was almost as tall as Shalimar's. It danced in the air still steamy from the shower, tongue flicking out to test the tenor of its prey, its head swaying hypnotically.
Feral senses narrowed down to one thing: the head of the king cobra. There was only one place where it could be defeated: just behind the hood. Too close to the head, and her hand wouldn't close around the massive hooded neck. Too far down, and the snake would turn to sink vicious hollow teeth into her arm and inject lethal venom. And then the world would be minus one feral mutant. Shalimar balanced on the balls of her feet. Who was faster: the feral or the cobra?
* * *
"What's this?" Jesse looked at Lexa's offering suspiciously. The circles under his eyes were, if anything, deeper than before, but the molecular was putting up a good front. The computer in front of him beeped plaintively, begging for attention, but Jesse ignored it in favor of inhaling the aroma of freshly ground coffee. He reached out for a mug from Lexa despite his suspicions. Nightmares be damned. I need caffeine.
"It's coffee. It's morning, it was a rough night. It's coffee. Black and strong."
Brennan spoke up. "I think what Jesse's trying to say is, why? You brought four cups on a serving tray. I didn't think you knew that we had a serving tray. What's the occasion?"
Lexa glared. "Do I have to have a reason?"
Brennan accepted a cup in his good hand. The other arm stayed cuddled in its sling. "Lexa, you have a reason for everything that you do. Bringing us coffee in the morning isn't like you."
"Rest assured, with this reception, this will never happen again."
"I didn't say I didn't appreciate it," Jesse said hastily. "Hey, bringing me coffee in the morning is great." He set it carefully down beside the computer after taking a sip. "Any breakfast to go with it?"
"Don't push your luck, brain boy."
"Just asking." Jesse threw up his hands with a grin. The expression didn't quite come off, but he tried. Lack of sleep got in the way, and he yawned.
"You find any more on Brennan's late night visitor?"
"Yeah, I'd like to hear the answer to that one." Brennan leaned forward, coffee forgotten. "What 'cha got?"
Jesse shrugged, and sighed. "Sorry, Brennan. I'm coming up empty. I've run every scan this place has got and then some. Unless your ghost has no mass, velocity, heat, radiation of any kind, and no energy signature whatsoever, nothing was here."
"A real ghost, you mean," Brennan grumbled. "I was seeing things." In the bright light of day, that explanation sounded more reasonable than a big black cloud of angry electrons. But dammit, he'd been so sure! "I could have sworn that there was something there."
"Amazing what drugs will do to your mind," Lexa said dryly. She started to sort through the mail that she'd also tossed onto the tray. "Advertising, advertising, charity begging letters, bills…" She held one up. "Here's one for you, Jesse. From Lady Esther Zietzburg. Isn't that the woman taking care of those kids that you rescued over a year ago? I didn't know she had a title."
"She doesn't. I think." Jesse hastily grabbed the letter from the chromatic elemental. "Adam didn't think she did, but was never certain. Lady Esther had hidden her past too well to be entirely certain, and she still likes to keep a certain mystery about her."
"She's a psionic, isn't she?" Lexa remembered. "Well, I don't blame her for a little bit of confusion. Makes it easier to keep out of the way of the big bad people who want to crawl inside your head and nest there."
"Borderline psionic," Jesse said absently, perusing the letter. "The three kids are doing well. School wants to promote Ernest up two grades instead of one because he's bored with doing seventh grade work. Lady Esther is seriously considering it, but is worried about socialization issues. Says Ernest spends too much time on the computer as it is." He looked up and grinned. "Like that's a problem." He read some more. "Tess has settled down, and she and Tom have hit it off, mutant-wise. Tess takes a psionic-vampire hit off of Tom every morning, and that slows Tom down enough that he can keep his telepathic powers under control."
"Sounds like they're doing well," Brennan commented. His coffee had finally cooled off enough to be drinkable and he paused for a larger gulp. "What's the problem?"
"I'm not sure." Jesse kept on reading. "Everything she writes looks good. Kids are growing up healthy, Tom and Tess have even started taking karate lessons at the local club. Seems like they kept pestering Lady Esther to let them after our last little escapade with them." He winced, remembering the episode. Jumping around and working out had not been part of his life immediately afterwards. Crawling around the house, trying to keep from getting dizzy and falling down on his face had been. Pretty similar to the first time he'd met Tess and Ernest, he recalled ruefully. Not a good track record there, Kilmartin. See the Maguire kids, get crunched by their dad every time.
"Don't see why," Lexa mused. "Absalom Maguire is now completely and irrevocably insane. There's no way he can harm them again. They don't need to know how to defend themselves against him."
Brennan snorted. "Wake up, Lexa. Maguire is not the only danger that they can expect to face in their lives. First, they're mutants. That in itself makes them targets. Second, look at Tess. She's only fourteen now, but she's going to be a looker in another couple of years. I'd say she's being smart." He cocked his head at Jesse. "Doesn't sound like there's any problems in the countryside."
"Has to be." Jesse scanned the letter again. "Lady Esther's invited us out for a couple of weeks."
"You're paranoid, Kilmartin," Lexa observed.
"Yeah, but it's a healthy paranoia. People really are out to get us."
"Couldn't possibly be that the kids want you three to visit. Maybe there's a school vacation coming up; they're going to try to talk you into Disneyworld?"
Brennan snorted. "Like their lives haven't been a scene straight out of fantasy. Only without the fun." He looked around. "Where's Shal? Her coffee's getting cold."
Jesse glanced back at the computer. The screen helpfully displayed green dots for the inhabitants' locations. "Heading this way. Entering in three…two…one…"
The door banged open, and Shalimar tossed a very large, very dead snake into the room. It landed on the floor and rolled over to form a vaguely S-shaped figure, its mouth gaping open to display its no longer lethal teeth. "This may not be your intruder of last night, Brennan, but I would really like to know how this got in. Especially since the nearest known king cobra is safely in the zoo."
* * *
"Yes, I am kicking you both out." Shalimar stood her ground, all five foot four of it. "Go visit Lady Esther and the kids. Lexa and I will join you as soon as we've cleaned house."
"I am not leaving you two here to fight this thing," Brennan insisted. "We don't know what it is."
"Good point. But we do know that you—" she jabbed Brennan in the sore arm and he yelped—"are not up to fighting speed. You will be in the way. And you—" and it was Jesse's turn next to come under scrutiny—"haven't slept for three nights. Or more."
"Have, too," Jesse protested.
"Hah. That's why Lexa found you dozing over the computer this morning. And why you're yawning all the time."
"Am not." Jesse couldn't help but stifle a yawn at the feral's words. Brennan covered a smirk.
"Therefore, as of now, the two of you are on vacation. This way we stone two birds without getting killed. You two get the rest that you so desperately need—"
"I am never desperate," Brennan protested.
"—and we can do our work without worrying about either one of you." Shalimar smiled to take the sting out of her words. "And Lexa and I will join you as soon as we take care of whoever thinks they can get us in Sanctuary. Any questions?"
"What—"
"I meant that rhetorically, Jesse." Shalimar shook her finger at the molecular. "No arguments. Go!"
* * *
"I can drive," Brennan insisted.
"Not. You took drugs less than an hour ago."
"I'm still okay to drive."
"Not a chance, Sparky. I want to get there in one piece."
"Oh, so you're so fit to drive? I caught you dozing off."
"All right, so we're both fools. Why do you think that the girls packed us off for a vacation? Be grateful that we've arrived in one piece." Jesse pulled the red sports car into the driveway of a white clapboard house with a wide veranda. There were several large trees in full leafy regalia shading the front yard, and a swing hanging from one of the massive branches. Bushes ruffled the line of the entranceway, with tulips and daffodils providing spots of color. Brennan smiled; it was the type of place that he wished he could have grown up in. Jesse turned the key in the ignition, shutting off the motor. "There they are."
Ernest and Tess came tearing out of the house, Tom sauntering behind. Lady Esther came to the door and waved, then hurriedly disappeared inside, called back by some alarm.
Brennan sniffed the air. "Chocolate chip cookies," he said delightedly. "Nobody makes 'em like Lady Esther!"
"Jesse!" Ernest yelled. He leaped at his fellow molecular.
Jesse caught the eleven year old mid-leap with a grin, and dumped him to the ground. "Warn me when you grow, guy. You're getting too big to do that."
"C'mon, Jesse." Ernest tugged excitedly at his hand. "You gotta see what I've been doing with the computer, all the stuff I've hard-wired in. I can—"
"Later, Ernest." Tess shoved her little brother aside with a grin. "My turn." She grabbed Jesse and hugged him hard, careful not to allow bare skin to touch. Jesse noted her actions, pleased. As a psionic vampire, the mere touch to another mutant would drain him senseless within moments. Jesse had had that happen to him more than once and much as he cared about Tess, didn't want it to happen again. Tess moved on to Brennan, giving him equal time though not equal fervor. It was clear: as much as Tess adored all of Mutant X, Jesse was her favorite.
Tom came up slower, aiming for adult restraint. "Hey, bro," Brennan greeted him. Jesse gave him a lazy high five. "How's it going?"
"Better than before," Tom grinned, tossing lanky brown hair out of his face. "Way better. Granny Esther's pretty cool for an old lady."
"She's the best!" Tess averred. "Don't let Tom fake you out. He won't admit it, but he likes Granny a lot, too."
Tom smiled. "She makes a mean chili dog, Brennan."
Brennan grinned back. Finding the perfect chili dog in town had been the goal for the two of them during the first days that Tom had moved in with Lady Esther and the Maguire kids. Mutant X had hung around for a few weeks, helping Lady Esther to recuperate from Tess's inadvertent draining and regaining their own equilibrium after finally shutting Absalom Maguire down for good. "Better than T.J.'s?"
"Yeah. Not by much. But better."
"I'll have to try 'em out." Brennan handed Jesse's duffel bag to Tom, hefting his own in his good hand. "After chocolate chip cookies, man."
"Yeah," Tom reflected. "She makes some good cookies, too. Never thought I'd taste those ever again." There was a hint of bleakness in the teen-ager's voice, not that Brennan blamed him. It had only been a short few months ago that Tom had been contemplating death as the most attractive of his options to escape Absalom Maguire's clutches. The intervening time had done much to fade the memories, but brushes with death tended to have a way of sticking to the soul. Know that for a fact, brother mutant.
Brennan took the opportunity to pry, looking for the unwritten reason Lady Esther had called them down here. Jesse had gone on ahead with Tess and Ernest, hauling in the load of goodies and toys that they'd bought on the way down. "How's it going here?"
"It's okay," Tom replied. Teen-age translation: a great place. Brennan could get behind that. The low key demeanor meant: don't ever get too excited about anything, because that would be the signal for the world to slap you by taking it away. "School's pretty boring."
"Usually is," Brennan agreed. "Hang in there. You don't have too much more to go. You thought about what you want to do after you graduate?"
"Nope. Can't go too far, not without Tess. Gotta stay close to home."
"Yeah, there's that." Brennan fell silent. Those two kids were stuck together, no matter what. Made fighting difficult for them. Daily doses of each other was mandatory unless they wanted to get sick, or worse. The horrors locked away in Tom's brain would crawl out to infect other people unless Tess powered him down, and Tess needed a high octane dose of Tom to keep from getting sick herself.
"There a local college," Tom offered. "I can try that. Gotta work, though. Need the money for tuition. Granny's set, but she's already done a lot. I can't ask that of her."
"Yeah." Brennan moved to another topic, one closer to home. "Anything going on here?"
"What do you mean?" Guarded.
"I mean, an invitation out of the blue to come visit. You guys don't have vacation right now, right? Not that we didn't want to come, but it raised some eyebrows back home."
"Tess wanted to see Jesse." Eyes carefully on the ground.
Brennan began to understand that part of the situation. Tom was worried about his competition. He tried to make light of it, give Tom an out from a too revealing comment. "Ernest too, I'll bet."
"Yeah. I guess." Tom paused to look at Brennan. More concern came forth. "Granny Esther says there's some pretty weird shit going on around here."
Whoa. Change of pace, here. And Brennan doubted that the polite Lady Esther used that kind of terminology to describe the happenings. "What kind of weird shit?"
"I don't know. I've never seen it. But the others have. Mist, creeping around the corners of the house early in the morning. The floor warps overnight, and some of the nails let loose. Bunches of little cockroaches or lizards running around, then they disappear. Sometimes a chipmunk comes up and feeds out of Tess's hand. That's cool; she loves it."
"So you've got some tame chipmunks."
"Uh-uh." Tom shook his head. "They're not tame, Brennan. They'll only do that for Tess. Not Ernest, not me, not Granny."
"She get a charge from another psionic? She used to do that, she said, a few years back with a kid who psychically tuned in on animals."
"Nope. No other mutants around here. We're the only ones. But some of the animals around here keeping getting in, even though we lock up the house tight. Bats, and owls and stuff. Lots of lizards—lots. And, Brennan," and it was clear that no matter how tall he'd become, Tom was still only fifteen, "some of the stuff that Granny has seen sounds a lot like the stuff in my head."
"Ah." Comprehension dawned. This was the issue that they'd been looking for, back at Sanctuary; the reason for the invitation. "She did right to call us down. Who else would believe you guys?"
Tom's face cleared with relief. "That's what Granny said. She said that you guys would know what to do, how to fix it so we're all okay." Some of the worry crept back. "You don't think it's me, do you?" Translation: I couldn't stand it if it was.
Brennan tried to reassure him. "If it were only the spooky stuff, yeah I'd be looking at you. But the chipmunks and the other animals; that's not something that you've ever done. The junk we've got to worry about crawling out of your head is the scary stuff. Besides, I don't think real live and solid chipmunks live in there, not even in that nest you call hair. No, I think we've got to look elsewhere for the answers. Anyone else besides Lady Esther see that creepy stuff?"
"Naw. She's the only one." Tom gave Brennan a sideways look. "You think it's just Granny? Maybe she's tuning into my head or something? Just seeing stuff that isn't there? The mist and shit, I mean? Not the solid stuff."
"Beats me." After his own hallucination of last night, that hit uncomfortably close to home for Brennan. "We gotta look around some more. We only just got here. Now, let's get into the house before Jesse eats up all of those cookies!"
* * *
Lady Esther settled herself on the sofa, wiping her hands one last time on her apron before removing it. "School night, children," she said firmly, despite the fact that Tom towered over her by a good six inches. Both Brennan and Jesse had to suppress an urge to go do homework themselves. "I know Ernest has finished his, but Tess, your book report is due tomorrow, and Tom, if you don't study you won't do well on your math test, and you know the consequences of that."
"But—" Tess started to protest, looking at Jesse. Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly, but the sigh was for real. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back real soon." She got up from her spot snuggled close to the molecular, gloved hands aching for honest contact. "I mean that, Jesse."
"Staying right here," Jesse assured her. "Brennan and I will chat with Lady Esther for a bit. If you like, I'll look over your report when you're done."
"Cool."
Brennan didn't miss the smoldering glare that emanated from Tom's direction toward the older molecular. Oh, yeah. Kid's got it bad, he thought, and resolved to speak to his teammate tonight, after hours. But for now, he turned to Lady Esther. "And—?"
Lady Esther's blue eyes twinkled over her spectacles. "And what, Mr. Mulray?"
Brennan grinned back. "And the reason that you wanted Mutant X to come calling was—?"
Lady Esther laughed, a tinkling sound of delight. What a woman she must have been in her prime, Brennan couldn't help thinking. "I can fool most of the people, but not you. Is that it, Mr. Mulray?"
"Saw right through you," Brennan agreed. "Comes from a misspent youth. Talking to Tom this afternoon didn't hurt."
"But that didn't stop you from coming down to visit."
"Not a chance," Jesse said, trying to fathom the sub-conversation.
"That's all to the good." Lady Esther wagged her finger at them both. "There's something odd going on in this household. I'm beginning to suspect that this house is haunted."
* * *
"Nothing," Lexa fumed, pouring over the computer security screens. "It's just like Jesse said. If there was anything here, it has no mass and no energy radiation whatsoever. That smoke cloud thing had to have been a hallucination."
"The cobra was no hallucination," Shalimar reminded her.
"I know. You brought me the carcass, just like a proud little kitty-cat. Can't you leave your play-toys outside where they belong?"
"Meow," Shalimar told her facetiously, refusing to get angry. "So how did it get in? Cobras don't live in this region of the world. That makes its presence here in Sanctuary deliberate, and limits the perpetrators to those who know where Sanctuary is." She tilted her head at Lexa. "The Dominion decide to fire us from their employ?"
"Hardly. And if they did, they'd be a little more overt about it. Like a good sized bomb of the nuclear persuasion." Lexa sighed. "I don't understand this. Could one of the guys be playing a joke on us?"
Shalimar shook her head. "Don't think so. You saw the look on Brennan's face last night. He was not joking. He was out of it. And Jesse's been so wiped these last few days that he can barely think straight."
"Hm." Lexa bit her lip. "I think you may have hit on something."
"I did?"
"I can get behind it not being the guys playing a practical joke. But what if it's someone trying to get at one of them? Think about it, Shal," and Lexa warmed to her subject. "What if it was one of those mutants that we took down a couple of days ago? Some of them could have escaped the explosion, just as we did. Brennan was our lead man on that mission; what if one of the escapees wanted revenge? A knife in the arm wasn't enough. That electric smoke cloud that he saw would have been the perfect way to get rid of an elemental."
"And the cobra? That wasn't electrified."
"No, but it was inside Sanctuary. It could have gotten any of us. It was sheer luck that you found it first, oh faster-than-a-mongoose feral. As sleepy as Jesse has been in the last few days, he would have been bitten three times before he woke up. I'd like to think that I could take it out with a few photons, but snakes are fast. I'm not going to complain about not having the chance to prove myself." Lexa steepled her fingers. "No, I think I'd like to proceed on the assumption that someone is out to get Brennan who, thanks to your Lady Esther, is now safely out of the way. Let's see if we can't dig up a few more clues."