Lexa straightened in the front seat of the navy blue SUV as the car approached the city limits. They'd waited 3 hours for Mike to arrive. The dominion location had been well outside the city limits, in the barren flatlands that marked the border between this state and the next. While the distance could have been traveled in only 15 minutes in the Helix, by car, the journey was much longer.
She twisted in her seat to look at the others. Shalimar and Brennan were curled into each other, while Jesse sat slumped over on the far side, his head leaning on the window as he slept. He had fallen asleep less than an hour after making the call to Mike. Shalimar had been worried, noticing for the first time the bruises and blood on Jesse's hands and face. Lexa had explained the events of the day, including Jesse's torture session. She'd never seen the device they'd used on Jesse before, she recounted, but guessed that it was an electromagnetic device of some kind used to inflict pain on and drain the energy of the victim. He just needed to let his body recover. She'd kept her emotion in check, and out of her voice, not quite ready to let the others see how unnerved the events had made her.
She watched Jesse a moment longer, then turned back in her seat. She shifted restlessly. Though she was tired, she couldn't sleep.
"Are you OK?" Mike's voice came from the driver's seat. He had been driving silently, respecting the exhaustion and solemn expressions of the mutants he had come to rescue.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Anything I can do?"
Lexa shot him a look to warn him off, but it must not have been as strong as she thought, because Mike scoffed, lifting one hand off the steering wheel in a gesture of mock defense.
"I'm a canine feral. Just like dogs, I can tell when people are really emotional. Your emotions are getting to me."
"Well, I'm sorry, I guess. A lot of stuff's happened, and I don't know what's going to happen next. It makes me a little nervous."
Mike nodded in sympathy as he turned through an interchange. "I know how you feel, after I left the circus I felt that way. Then after you guys saved my wife and she came back I felt that way again. All I can say is that you'll come up with something, and then you'll have direction again. In the meantime, you feel completely lost, and all you can do is wait it out."
Lexa nodded and the car fell silent again.
Twenty minutes later Mike and Lexa were helping a sleepy Jesse into the safehouse, Brennan and Shalimar walking behind. Mike went to a side table to return the car keys and re engage the security system. Lexa half pushed a stumbling Jesse to the nearby couch, where he promptly settled in to sleep.
"Donna's set up some of the rooms and put some clean towels out. I think you can leave him there, though," he said with a nod to Jesse. "Doesn't look like he's gonna go anywhere. There's a first aid kit in the closet there. Do you guys need anything else?"
Shalimar shook her head. "Just to rest. We'll have to figure things out in the morning. Right now, none of us are thinking very well."
Mike nodded, said goodnight, and went downstairs. Like most safehouses, much of the space was underground, to conceal its true size and capacity.
Shalimar retrieved the first aid kit from the closet and sat on the arm of the chair that Brennan had lowered himself into. "You okay?" she whispered.
Brennan reached for her hand. "Yeah. You?"
"Not really. I'm still having trouble with the idea of Adam being a clone."
"We'll figure everything out tomorrow. Right now, though, you want to get this bullet out of my shoulder?"
She squeezed his hand, then got to work, pulling his clothing away from the wound. "Looks like the bullet went all the way through. I'll put a bandage on it, but I think Jesse should take a look at it in the morning. As much as he says he hates the medbay, he knows a lot about medical stuff."
Brennan glanced over at Jesse. While young molecular slept Lexa was gingerly applying an antiseptic to the cuts on his face and hands. "Yeah…you know, I think Lexa cares about him more than she lets on." He drew Shalimar's attention to Lexa and Jesse.
"I think she does too, but it's going to take some time. She knows she has him, and us, for family now, but I don't think she's quite sure how to deal with it. I don't know what she's going to do now that the Dominion's turned on her. I just hope she doesn't hurt Jesse. There, all done."
Brennan glanced at her work. "I think Jesse'll be fine. He's tougher than he looks. Come on. Let's get clean and hit the sack."
AN: Thank you all for your reviews! I've got more of the story done, and the whole story outlined, and I'll be trying to get a chapter up per day…