Legal disclaimer-I don't own these characters. They belong to Stan and Avi and the rest of the Marvel folks.
Authors Note- Ladies and gentlemen, the cliffhangers await. Hee hee hee-and thank you for the reviews. Hope you all are liking this one.
Chapter 5
Kari turned to face Jesse. The angry glance she met chilled her to her soul. He was very upset.
"I don't think I'm sorry is going to work, is it?" she scrambled for the right words to say.
"No, I don't think it will," Jesse said, breaking the gaze and turning from her to pace the floor of the Underground's computer lab, "What did you want to know Kari, that you don't already?"
She took a second to answer.
"I need to know what your fears are, Jess," Kari began, "Where you were a few hours ago is a place I don't know. I know now that you don't care for close places, I don't either. But Jesse, if I am ever able to help you, I need to know what I am looking at."
Jesse nodded. She was right, but she still could have simply asked.
"I know," he replied, "I know that you are helping and I am sorry that I snapped. I just never, ever want to go there again, Kari."
Kari put a hand on his shoulder. The stress of the past few weeks had caught up to both of them. He had every right in the world to be angry with her, it wasn't right that she delved into his files without permission, but the landscape of his nightmare was one she was both fascinated and terrified from. The thought of being locked in a pod was one she had hoped to never face. In turn she had felt every single moment of his fear from the second she had entered his nightmare.
Jesse yawned.
"You still tired?" she asked.
His eyes met hers again, and his mouth wandered into a smile.
"Yep, but I have miles to go before I sleep," Jesse replied, "Where are we in getting an aircraft?"
Shalimar Fox had been working as hard as everyone else and when the opportunity came for her to sleep, she ran for it. Her own cot was not as comfortable as Brennan's and she knew the package deal was Brennan in the cot with her. She curled up with her friend and feel into a well needed sleep. Brennan couldn't fall asleep as fast as she could, his mind was racing too fast with what had transpired with Kari and Jesse.
Kari was an unusual asset to the team, working very hard to put them back on track to a level where they could help everyone. She was using her contacts not just within the mutant underground, but she was also a very willing liaison to the legends of mutants, the X-men. She was to be admired, but her reaction to Jesse's nightmare was surprising. She jumped straight into Jesse's terror, not knowing how touching him could affect her.
He put an arm around Shalimar and had her settle into the crook of his arm. She had become so much closer to him since the destruction of Sanctuary. She kept him centered.
He had to protect her and Lexa. Poor Lexa. She had been so quiet since Kari had come back into their lives, he knew that she liked the Native American, but Kari could get under Jesse's skin faster than she could. Hopefully she and Kari would still get along as things got back on track.
He closed his eyes. Sleep grabbed him quickly.
Lexa Pierce, on the other hand, kept up her tabs on a search for Adam Kane. While she worked just as hard as everyone else in rebuilding their lives, Lexa had sent out her queries to her contacts, hoping for some sign. There sadly was no one who knew the whereabouts of Adam Kane, let alone her contacts in the Dominion. She felt truly alone.
Kari kept up her ties as well. She had contacted Charles Xavier when time finally permitted. He was still using Cerebro to try and find Adam Kane, but having no luck. Xavier had explained that since Adam was a clone it was nearly impossible to differentiate between him and The Creator.
Kari kept working on the computer system, one eye on the program process, the other on Jesse. He had been very quiet since he caught her reading his files. She felt that the apology worked, but, she knew he was still a little wary of her. She needed to know though. If something was haunting him, she had to have ways of fighting it.
Eckardt was gone though, their elimination of him still fresh in her memory. He was a malignant spirit wandering through Jesse's biochemistry. She had pulled it out of him.
Jesse had handled that well, so his reaction to this bothered her. Something was very wrong.
She looked up to the chair where Jesse was working. He was still sitting there, but he had done like he had done weeks earlier, he had passed out at the keyboard.
"Jesse?" she asked.
"hmmmmm?" he questioned, not moving, but somewhat still awake.
"You gonna sleep there?" she asked.
He didn't reply, but his breathing patterns had changed to that of a deep sleep. He slumped in his chair and she moved the keyboard so that he could put his head down on the desk. He did just that, fast asleep. She leaned over, kissed him on the forehead, then wandered over to the dojo.
Lexa was already in there, working off stress with a jump rope. She nodded to Kari who stretched then began to slowly run through a kata. They both worked in silence until two very distinct screams broke their concentrations.
"That sounded like Shalimar," Lexa stopped as another scream played down the hallway, Kari running toward the other scream she heard. Jesse.
