AN: Evil cliffhanger, huh? Well, here come answers! I can't believe how long this story has become. My best estimate has the story lasting about 25 chapters, so there's a way to go yet!


Chapter 15

The night before…

Jesse tapped his fingers against the counter impatiently. When all this was over, 'this' being the issue of the expiry dates and Adam's kidnapping, if he ever saw another computer terminal it would be too soon.

He had spent the last four days digging up and analyzing Adam's records of his research on their genetic structures. Adam had made it somewhat simple, he supposed. The geneticist had kept meticulous records. He had noted biological and chemical statistics - in blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, hemoglobin, adrenaline and other hormones – all hoping they would prove useful. Furthermore, he had made an active effort to apply each test to at least three of them, never using more than one of them as a control. It had proved useful because he could eliminate many of the tests; tests in which he was the control subject could be eliminated as the cause for his stabilization. Furthermore, he was focusing on the experiments of the past two and half years. That was the last time Adam had run an absolute, controlled test of each of their genetic structures. His structure had been unstable at that time, so the 'cure' had come sometime after that. Eliminating, or rather setting aside these tests in case his reasoning was flawed, left him with 51 possibilities.

He had developed a logical system. For each of these experiments he had compared the results for all of the test subjects side by side. His screen displayed horizontal rows of test results, with column headings of 'Jesse,' 'Shalimar,' 'Emma,' 'Brennan,' and 'Lexa.' Lexa and Emma had never been tested simultaneously for anything, and Lexa was only involved in the last few tests, but he kept all five up at once just to be safe. His biggest problem now was that there were so much data and so many tests that it was taking him days to go through it all. He was working with test 48 now. If he didn't find anything soon, he'd have to start all over.

At one point Brennan came in, a tray of food in hand. "Brain food, man," he said.

Jesse had mumbled his thanks, barely looking up.

"Hey, Jess. You've been spending a little too much time in here. Maybe later we could go shoot some hoops or something. It'll clear the cobwebs in your brain, help you think better when you get back."

Jesse looked up. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was paler than normal. He rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. "You're right, man. I've just got a couple more tests to run through. Then I'll need to relax a little bit because I'll have to figure out where I went wrong."

Brennan recognized Jesse's need to finish his project. "All right, bro. I'll leave you to it. But I'm holding you to some hoops later."

"Deal."

Though Brennan's interruption had at first been unwelcome, the reminder that he still had close friends that needed his help had energized him. A few moments later, he heard Brennan call out that they had gotten a lead and were leaving. He shouted back a reply, but kept his eyes on the screen, still going over the test results. At one point he had given in to his hunger and consumed the turkey sandwich and apple juice that Brennan had left behind.

Two hours later he finished going through the results of the 51st and final test in his data set. He hadn't found anything. Not a single errant result that may indicate it was the cause of his stabilization. Brennan was right, he realized. He needed some rest. Maybe then his brain would clear and he'd have a better chance of finding the answer. They others hadn't returned, so he left the cave and headed back up the mansion by himself.
.

.

The next morning hadn't proved any more fruitful. He had managed to get almost six hours of sleep before his restless mind had pulled him from slumber, demanding that he return to his work. So far, he had reviewed his notes and hadn't found even a clue to something he may have missed. He tossed the notepad across the room. "Damn it!" he swore, slamming his hand down on the counter top, upending the tray of dishes he had left in the room the night before. The glass and plate landed heavily on the floor, cracking in to several pieces each. The plastic tray landed jauntily on top of the mess.

Letting loose a curse that he didn't think he'd ever said aloud before, Jesse knelt and swiped his hands across the floor to clean up the mess. He stopped short and swore again when he felt something slice into his palm. Holding his hand up, he saw that a piece of the glass had cut into his hand.

Jesse forced himself to slow down. He couldn't help anyone if he rendered himself useless. He wiped away some of the blood from his hand with the tail of his shirt. The cut wasn't too deep, but he should put something on it. He looked around for the dermal sealant, but then remembered glumly that it was one of the items still on their shopping list. Deprived of the sealant, he phased his injured hand through a cupboard, pulling out a box of less technological, yet always effective, band-aids.

Unwrapping one, he moved to place it on his palm, but froze. The cut looked smaller. Frowning, Jesse studied his hand. Curious, he phased his hand. Then he massed it. He phased it again. And he watched as the cut grew smaller, becoming a small nick before disappearing completely.

Jesse stared at his hand in awe, running his fingers over the formerly injured area. His hands stilled as he realized what he was looking at. That realization led to another, then another, and another. His eyes widened. "Oh, my God…"

Forgetting the band-aid, Jesse hurriedly turned back to the computer, searching for one particular data set. Where was it?! There, the 44th test – the addition of another C-G base pair to gene 938. He compared the effect of the test in himself, Shalimar and Emma. Brennan had been the control for the subject. There! There was an unexpected increase in one hormone in Jesse's system, but Adam had written it off as a harmless side effect. He hadn't considered that it might be the cure because it hadn't occurred in all three test subjects.

Jesse moved away from the computer and began to pace across the small room. Thinking back to events since that test, everything made sense. Bruises and cuts had healed quickly. He'd recovered from the bullet in only four days. Even the damage incurred from his recent run-in with the Dominion had healed in a day or two. He had just thought that the damage hadn't been as bad as he first thought.

Jesse drew a sample of his own blood and ran it through the analyzer. He searched out the altered gene. He examined the level of the hormone that had spiked after test 44. He checked his mutations. Everything fit. Everything further proved his theory.

Shit. How was he going to tell the others? His miraculous survival of his expiry date wasn't so miraculous at all. Furthermore, this test and its results couldn't be repeated on the others. They needed Adam more than ever now. Maybe he'd be able to do something with this new information.

He had to talk to the others. Now. He hadn't seen them last night and didn't know if their lead had panned out. He needed to tell them what he had found. Grabbing his jacket off of the recently installed chair, he dashed out of The Cave and up the hill to the mansion. He didn't even break stride as he entered, simply phasing through the walls to the room where he heard the voices. Finally seeing them, he slowed his steps. Katie was by the stove, Brennan and Lexa were sitting at the countertop and Shalimar was heading straight for him.

Shalimar stopped up short in front of him. She had been going somewhere. "Jesse, what's wrong?"

He didn't know how to start, how to explain.

Lexa stepped down from a bar stool. "Jess, what is it?"

Finally, he just let it out in the most straightforward way he could think of: "Adam didn't fix my genetic structure."