I know I said this was going to be updates sooner but I'm really running low on time. Its a shame there are only twenty four hours in a day. And I've currently been hungover for four of them so you're lucky you're getting an update at all. Thanks for the reviews, its great to hear that you're all enjoying the story and I love hearing the constructive criticism, it can only make me better, right? (yes, that's a reference to you deathlioness). Please review again, I look forward to hearing what you think of this chapter cos I like it.

'Here's your new passport,' Jesse said as he handed the small book to Halle.

'Amanda Ryan,' she replied doubtfully. 'You couldn't have given me something a little cooler?' she asked. She smiled on the off chance that Jesse had missed out on her sarcasm. She was beyond grateful for everything Mutant X had done and was continuing to do for her. Not only had they shown up to help her out of the dangerous situation she had found herself in but they were now aiding her by getting her started in her new life, one where she wouldn't be bothered by the Dominion. And this after she had screwed with all their minds, making them believe they were in places they weren't, making them believe that the Dominion were the good guys.

'Are you sure you'll be okay?'

She turned and looked straight at Lexa. The brunettes face betrayed her anxiety over sending Halle off into the big bad world and Halle grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a tight embrace. They were as close as any sisters had been and she was one of the few things Halle was loathe to leave behind. Eventually they pulled apart, aware of how time was flying by with no regard for their feelings.

'I'll be fine. More than fine,' Halle said. She hoped that statement was true. Her life hadn't exactly progressed smoothly so far but she figured this was a turning point. She had friends, ones who cared enough about her to put themselves on the line for her. She had never had that before, except for Lexa all those years ago and it made her feel a little warm and fuzzy inside. She felt a small twinge of guilt as she thought of how she had left Charles behind. When he had been shot they had all taken off barely giving a second thought to the dead man. But the small twinge was replaced by an intense feeling of relief. She would always appreciate the fact that she had had a brother but she couldn't force herself to feel sorry that he was dead and gone from her world.

Lexa smiled and turned to the man who was going to be taking Halle into the new mutant underground. He started up the car he was sitting in and Halle took it as her cue to get moving. Either that or she would burst into tears and she knew that if that happened she wouldn't stop.

She slipped into the passenger seat of the vehicle and slammed the door shut behind her, feeling tears begin to well up and the adrenaline start pumping. She was, although she would never admit it looking forward to the new beginning she was being offered.

A though occurred to her and she rolled down the window.

'Are you sure Brennan's going to be okay?' she asked, urgency filling her voice.

'He'll be fine,' Jesse replied with more confidence than he felt. 'He's a fighter.'

'Tell him I said goodbye,' she said. 'And thank you.' She still felt guilty at the thought of what had happened to him and she leant back in her seat feeling the cool breeze wash over her. She felt the car accelerate beneath her, away from the two people and when she next chose to look in the wing mirror they were mere specks on the horizon.

Shalimar awoke with a start. She hadn't even realised that she had been asleep her dream had been so vivid. She had been back near the Dominion building, chasing Charles Handon. She could remember the sound of the Helix pulling up in front of him, eventually pulling itself out of stealth mode to reveal the plane in all its glory. She could remember Brennan walking out of the ship as soon as it landed and she could picture him standing there, looking like he was going to blow Handon apart. She had wanted to know exactly what thoughts were running through his mind at that moment and she had made a mental note to herself to ask him later that day. They had stood there as if for hours though Shalimar knew it could have been no longer than a few seconds. And then two shots rang out. She closed her eyes at the memory but that only made it worse as the visions filled her eyelids. She remembered looking around her, trying to find the guy with the gun but she hadn't seen anything or anyone. Whoever it was had probably been camouflaged so well that even the eyes of a feral had been useless to locate them. But the one thing she couldn't picture was when Brennan had been shot. She had been so preoccupied with trying to find the shooter that she hadn't been looking at him. But the worse part about memories was that they filled in the blanks and all she could see in her mind were fractured images of Brennan staggering backwards from the impact, of falling to the ground, of being carried into the Helix and in all he had the same shocked, scared vulnerability to him. She would never forget that face.

After that everything got slightly blurry but she vaguely remembered Jesse leading her onto the plane. She could still feel the pressure of his hand on hers.

Her eyes moved across to Brennan. The movement of his breathing was imperceptible even to her specialised vision. It worried her, seeing him, the strongest person she knew lying in a lab chair, the only thing keeping him alive being a ventilator. Everyone always assumed that she was the strong one, that she didn't ever need to rely on anyone, that she was a completely independent being capable of looking after herself under all circumstances. But the truth was she was scared. She depended on Brennan. Without him, without Jesse and even Lexa she was nothing. She was defined by the people around her because she lived for them. If they all disappeared then she was nobody, she had no reason to carry on breathing.

She stared at him from her viewpoint on the chair which had been a permanent fixture next to his bedside as had she. She hadn't left him for a second since they had arrived back at Sanctuary, and she wasn't intending to any time soon. She had to stay, if she didn't all of the emotions she had been keeping behind sturdy barriers would flood in on her ad she knew she couldn't handle that. While she was at Brennan's side she remained numb, everything was separated from her.

She reached her hand to the back of her head as a sharp pain seemed to jab at her, an effect of the blast of light from Handon. She pushed through her mass of tangled unbrushed hair. She suspected she would need a haircut when this whole ordeal was over because no hairbrush would be able to make its way through it. She pulled her hand away and looked at it. In her tired mind everything took a while to process. The red stood out, vibrant against her pale skin. It was almost like it was mocking her. It was telling her how little time she had left. She closed her eyes and allowed the tears to flow freely down her cheeks, the first real sign that she was still feeling something.

'Please Brennan,' she whispered at the sleeping man as she stood up from her chair in order to get closer to him, reached out her hand and shook his shoulder gently. She knew it wouldn't do any good. He was too out of it but she desperately needed him to wake up. She couldn't let the head wound from a stupid shard of rock beat her before he woke up. She had to see him, she had so much she needed to talk to him about, she had to tell him exactly how she felt. She couldn't let herself slip away from him without saying goodbye.

'Brennan,' she repeated, her tone becoming more urgent as her voice cracked in the silence. She reached her hand out and brushed her fingers against his cheek before she felt herself sway on her feet. Her vision became fuzzy and she blinked trying to stall for time. Her eyes rolled upwards and she grabbed hold of the bed as she fell to the floor, her head rebounding off the cold stone.

The pounding was the first thing he felt. He knew he was slipping out of the darkness, coming towards the light as cliched as that might sound but when he finally opened his eyes he realised that the light wasn't quite the one he had imagined it to be. The overheads in the lab at Sanctuary came into view and he turned away to save his corneas. He looked around him slowly, taking everything in as if for the first time. He had never been quite so happy to see Sanctuary, especially not the lab. But the pounding hadn't gone away. It felt like he had drunk too much the night before but, on trying to sit up he felt a sharp jabbing pain like someone was sitting on him sticking a knife into his chest and then drawing it out only to sink it in again. He lay back down and closed his eyes, focusing his mind on the pain so that he could adapt himself to it.

'Drunk too much and then convinced someone that shooting me was a good idea,' he muttered wryly to himself.

He couldn't hear anyone around him. There was no sound except for the whirring of the air conditioning and his own, slightly laboured and heavy breathing. He wondered where everyone was. Maybe they were looking for the guy who shot him but Brennan knew who it was already. The gunman had been sent by the Dominion. Charles had become a useless commodity, one that could have its employment status terminated. He was hardly suprised that the Dominion had shot him too. It was a warning message, one that had gotten across loud and clear to him atleast. But he was a little disappointed to find that there was nobody waiting for him at his bedside. He had assumed that there would atleast be someone around who could check on him and make him feel like he had been missed. He rolled over onto his side, his back aching from lying on it for too long.

A frown appeared on his face as he saw a black boot over the edge of the bed. It looked like one of Shalimar's and although he could believe that she would leave it lying around he didn't think Jesse or Lexa would have left it there.

He pulled himself to the edge of the bed a little more until he was looking over it. As he saw the figure lying on the floor he rolled off. His knees knocked into the ground but his mind was too preoccupied to even acknowledge the pain. He rolled the blonde over onto her back and stared at her face, a million and one emotions running through his mind, all of them accompanied by questions which he didn't know the answers to. He brushed his fingers across her pale cheek. She looked so small and helpless, something he knew she wouldn't thank him for thinking. He reached underneath her and lifted her up, placing her on the bed. As he slid his arm out from beneath her head he saw the blood.

'Jesse,' he yelled into his comlink, panic rising in his mind, overwhelming him. 'Jesse!'

'Brennan?' came the confused reply.

'Yeah, Shalimar's down.'

'What do you mean?'

'Exactly what I said. I need you back here now from wherever it is you and Lexa are.'

'Alright, we'll be about ten minutes.'

'Make it sooner,' Brennan said before cutting the connection. His life was becoming one big ironic statement. First he wanted to tell the whole world about his relationship with Shalimar despite never admitting to any feelings he harboured for her while they were flirting non-stop; and now, right when he got out of a coma she went into one. It was like the world was conspiring against him to make sure that he was never happy. If he believed in fate he would have given up on the relationship by now but he was too stubborn to give into something that tried to control him in anyway.

He brushed her hair away from her face and just stared at her. He couldn't bear seeing her like that. Pain was not meant for some people and Shalimar should have been one of them. If he could have had one wish in his entire life he would have wanted her to never get involved with any of this. But he had an idea that she would never have forgiven him for taking away what she believed to be rightfully hers. She was a feral through and through and Brennan didn't really know if he would have wanted to change that. But he would have tried his hardest to stop her from feeling so much pain, so much suffering.

After what seemed like forever he heard footsteps running along the corridors to towards him. Jesse ran into the room and after a mere seconds hesitation strode forward to come to the aid of his sister. Brennan stepped back, unsure what he could do to help. He didn't even feel the pain stabbing at his gut. It wasn't even like he had blacked it out, he just couldn't face it, not until he was sure Shalimar was okay. He had always known they had a connection. Maybe it had been because they both loved kicking ass or because they both had an understanding about the extraordinary lives they led but they had clicked from the moment they first met. But gradually flirtation had become something more serious. And it wasn't until he had seen her on the floor that he had realised quite what she meant to him. She was his world, his everything, as cheesy as that sounded. He had never looked for commitment in his life from anyone, not just girlfriends. But Shalimar demanded something more from him and he didn't even question it. He trusted her completely. It would have been a weird experience if it weren't her. He was in a constant state of worry about losing her and now his realisations were coming to life.

'Brennan,' came the panicked voice from the doorway. He turned to look at Lexa's worried face. She was staring at the bandages around his waist and he followed her gaze to look at them. The white of the cloth had been stained red. It was gradually spreading further, threatening to block out the previously pristine white.

She rushed forward and pushed him down onto a seat, her force not giving him any chance at resisting. She grabbed a first aid kit from the surface behind him and immediately began about repairing the damage that had been done in her and Jesse's absence.

'You'd think we could leave you and her alone for half an hour,' she said reproachfully, trying to hide, unsuccessfully the fear she was feeling.

He didn't reply. He kept his eyes on Shalimar, trying to stop himself from blinking. He felt the pain from the bullet wound but it was dulled and he managed to ignore it as he watched Shal's chest, rising and falling with each breath which indicated that she was still alive. He couldn't lose her, he just couldn't.