Again; the usual disclaimers r in the 2nd chapter.

Did u miss me?!* grins* well I'm back with a vengeance…lol o.k…I'll not keep u guys in any more agony s come on in!

To note : I suck at medical terms and I'm going pretty vague here so u guys just use ur imaginations, o.k? I really suck at this medical terms…so…I'm gonna cheat a little on the details and move on just as quickly… but not that quick. *winks*

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Chpt 5 -

Shal was staring into space when Adam got to her. He had to pry Jesse from her grasp in order to get a closer look at Jess. He did a quick examine on his ward and knew that this was serious. He looked up to see a breathless Brennan rushing in through the kitchen; worry written all over his face. He had heard Shalimar screams over his comlink and had woken up in irritation until he could hear the terror in her screams and had rushed down to checked it out.

Adam could hardly find a pulse and it does not look good. There were too much blood to know the full extend of his injuries. He looked at Bren and said, "Here, help me lift him to the lab. Be careful, I think he has some internal injuries."

"Gently…place him here." Adam instructed Brennan as he place the limp figure on the med lab. Soon, the lab was filled with the sounds of the beeping machines. Immediately he did a scan on Jesse. While waiting on the results of the scan, he placed more tubes and wires to Jesse's exposed torso.; now slicked with his blood.

Shalimar was watching all of this activities from behind the glass screen. Emma had to move her to the observatory, knowing that a paranoid Shalimar is not of the greatest help, least of all to Jesse. She had been silent all this while, Emma observed. I hope she's o.k. Hell, she thought, turning to look at the body lying so still on the bed oblivious to the frenzy of activities that flowed around him; I hope he's o.k.

A loud beep from the computer screen indicated the outcome of the scan. "Good god," he whispered, looking at the screen in disbelief. "It can't be." Brennan moved over to his side trying to glimpsed at the screen. "What is it?" he finally gave up; the colourful charts and numbers meant nothing to him. " He has a bullet in his lungs," Adam looked at him straight in his eyes. "and he's haemorrhaging internally." A sent of shivers crept up Brennan spine.

Suddenly, the beeping turned more rapid and the siren from the heart monitor caused further commotion in the already congested lab. "He's going into shock!" Adam tore away from Brennan's gaze and looked down at Jesse. He's already convulsing and blood was trickling out from his mouth. Out of the blue, he jerked up and gushed out a fresh load of blood all over Emma and Shalimar who had rushed in at the first sound of alarm.

An hour later, Adam heaved a sigh of relief. He had gotten out the bullet, stop the bleeding and although Jesse's not out of danger as of yet, he has been somewhat stable and now Emma and Shalimar are helping him clean up Jesse. In a rush, it all came back to him; Jean's death, his findings on serum X257K, Jesse, the blood, the panic and worry on all of his team members; no, he shook his head, his family; he realised how close he was to losing one of them today. Exhaustion overwhelmed in him and he almost collapsed if it wasn't for Shal who caught him and steadied him. "Why don't you take a rest; we're almost done here," She said gently, knowing he would protest if she had insisted. He sighed and gave a nod; moving slowly towards his room. Hmm…he must really be tired, he didn't even protest; she observed, staring at the back of the man whom she had often regard as her father.

She moved back in to the lab to keep watch over Jesse just as Emma was done with his dressing. Emma looked up at the approaching figure and sense her worry without looking at the telltale signs on her haggard face. She knew Shal was tired; the events of the day flashing through her mind, Shal just standing there not doing anything, too overwhelmed by all that blood too do anything. "What about you; you've gave such a good advice to Adam, don't you think you should get some rest, too?" she asked.

Shal looked up at Emma as she settled down on to a chair near the bed. She feel exhausted, but seeing Jesse on the med bed seemed to washed away any tiredness she had felt. "Not yet; I think I'm gonna stay here for a while," she gave Jesse's limped hand a squeeze. Emma nodded; sensing that she wants to be left alone and walked silently out of the lab, telling herself that Jesse's gonna be alright; she feels that she need some comforting and went to look for Brennan.

"Oh Jess," Shal whispered. Jesse was lying with tubes sticking out of him from odd angles. Adam had him on a respirator; he didn't want to put any more stress on his injured lungs and although he thinks that Jess could breathe on his own; he had it installed, just in case. She brushed a loose strand of hair from his forehead. She was unnerved by his stillness. Her brother was always so invincible that to see him like this…so, so vulnerable just breaks her heart.

Emma walked slowly into the dojo where she knew she'll find Brennan. There's no other place for him to go; she thought, knowing that talking about 'stuff' wasn't really his style. Action speaks louder than words for that guy; she observed, seeing him dodging several moves from the hologram. "Hey" she said, shattering the silence. He looked up to acknowledged her greeting and managed to dodge another blow from the hologram. He sighed and switched off the program. He reached for his towel to wipe off his sweat. "So, how's our boy doing?" he enquired; he had left the room when Shal and Emma moved in to clean up Jesse. The mess got too much for his stomach and he needed to let the nausea off and what better way than to fight it out with some stimulations, eh?

"He's stabilising, Shal's with him, Adam's resting in his room; what about you, are you alright?" she voiced her concerns. "Yeah" he shrugged. "I'm alright; I'm gonna take a shower before I see Jess and maybe have some breakfast after that," He stopped to checked his watch. "Make that lunch" he grinned. It was almost 2pm.

Emma couldn't help but smile at his remark. Yeah…her stomach growled. Now that he mentioned it, she was hungry. "Hurry up! I'll cooked up something for lunch while you go take a shower, alright?" "I'm on it!" he shouted from the landing, moving into his room.

Adam walked in on Shalimar and rested a hand on her shoulder. She jerked, startled by his touch; she had fallen asleep. He had thought he could get some rest but he has too much on his mind. "Why don't you come into the kitchen? Emma's cooking up something, and I think she could do with your help; I smell smoke" he gave her a sad smile. "You need to keep up your strength, you won't be any good to Jesse if you collapsed from exhaustion," he tried to reason with her.

She sighed. Adam's right, she noted; something's burning. She returned Adam's sad smile and gave him a hug. She gave Jesse a last glance before moving towards the kitchen.

Now it's Adam's turn to sigh as he checked Jesse's vitals. He seemed to be doing fine. He shouldn't be needing the respirator soon if this keeps up. He moved on to the computer; he had almost broken down the components of X527K and was on the verge of finding a cure for it before all of the commotions this morning. Hmm… the strands seem to be attacking the brain cells that is responsible for producing adrenalin and seranium; making it work ten times as much to produce such an incredible amount of rage and violence, he observed.

A slight groan alerted him to the figure on the bed. Swiftly he was by the figure side, "Jesse?" brows furrowing in worry. "Jesse, can you hear me? Open your eyes, Jesse." He could see Jesse was having difficulty talking with the respirator in his airway and he proceeded to remove the offended item from his mouth.

The lights hurts, my head hurts, my chest hurts and what the hell is the thing that's in my mouth, Jesse tried to voiced out his complains but it all come out in a feeble moan as Adam released his airway from the respirator. He gasped; black spots filling his visions once again and clearing just as quickly. He took a while to adjust his sight to the blinding lights in the lab before opening his eyes.

My, that was a quick recovery, Adam noted; glancing to check on his vital signs once more and taking a scan. Well he seems fine; no complications as of yet. He better call the rest of the team. He knows at least one person, if not all of them, would be happy with the news. Jess, Jess, you gave us quite a scare my boy, he shook his head; relief surging through his veins at the thought of the events this morning.

"Please Jesse, stay where you are." Adam warned, looking up from his experiments. He was still bent on finding a cure. "Aawww come on, I'm fine enough as it is," Jesse begged to differ. "No, you're not strong enough as yet, Jesse" he looked up and gave him a stern look. "I mean it, one more nonsense from you and I'm barring you from coming out of your room." "All right, all right" Jesse admitted defeat. Jeeze…I only come out cause I'm bored.

He gave a cough and moved back to the confinement of his room. He's been on bed rest for the past couple of weeks and he itch to get back to action or a least, he sighed, move around a bit. He felt fine although his chest still aches whenever he tried to breathe it too deeply and it still hurts when he practice his powers. Last night, he had tried to phase out of his room and the pain was overwhelming but thankfully abrupt and now he's not very sure when he'll be fine enough to try his powers again. He hate to admit it but at the rate this goes on…he's going to be a liability to the team and he don't think he could live with that.

"Mr Ekchart, our decoy has been detected and destroyed. The serum worked perfectly into our plan." An agent surveyed the extend of the damaged done in the abandoned safe house. "And if my guess is correct, into one of Mutant X's mutants as I speak." he continued, touching the computer screen. "I'm assuming the decoy had the slow-reacting serums of X527K with him?" Mason acquired of his agent. "Affirmative. We had coated the bullets in the guns with the slow-reacting serum before handing it over to the decoy." the agent confirmed. "You have done well, agent McKalliskey; you will be justly rewarded." Mason ended the transmission and sat back in his chair. "We'll see how Adam gets himself out of this," he allowed a rare an sinister smile to form on his face. "Oh, we shall see indeed".

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Phew! Finally done with this chapter! Oh the twists and turns in this plot was getting a bit overwhelming - almost couldn't continue but I did it. Sorry I took a little bit longer than expected to complete this chpt but work was getting to me n I got too exhausted. Anyway…I'll be going on vacation on Monday (Yay!) n I'll get back to u guys when I get back. So u'll just have to be very patient and wait a little longer, alrite?

Love all the comments u guys gave me…*blows kisses all around*. I'll try to do my best to keep u all interested n satisfied. Was this chpt good enuff? Should I have done more? I'm still thinking about my next few chpts and I need some fresh ideas. U have to sent ur comments,o.k? Alrite…gonna go pack my bags now. Ciao!