A/N: I DO realize that I probably got it wrong which arm the biolink is on. As always, don't hesitate to correct me. Hey, I figured I had a fifty/fifty chance, right? Oh well, I always guess wrong when the odds are good for me. Heehee, help me out here.

Chapter 4

Josh ran towards the elevator that led to the parking garage, ignoring the odd looks he got from the other people in the hall. He got into the elevator just as it arrived at the floor. Not bothering to wonder at the helpful coincidence, he got in and pressed the button to close the doors. Once the doors were closed he ordered the elevator to go down to the parking garage level and slumped against the wall of the elevator. He looked up a few seconds later as he felt the elevator shudder to a stop.

"Oh great. Now what?!"

"Sorry, hermano, Smith's orders are to keep you from leaving the building," came a Hispanic voice over the biolink.

"BRO!!"

"I'm supposed to detain you until Smith can meet the elevator, which should be in about three minutes."

Josh sat back down on the floor of the elevator. "I didn't know you could mess around with the elevators," he grumbled.

"I can mess around with any electronic."

"Great." The blond teenager sat in silence for a few seconds, and then suddenly looked up.

Berto, being able to see everything that Josh saw, immediately knew what his friend as up to. "Josh, don't," he warned.

"Sorry, but there's a part of this elevator that isn't electronic." With that, Josh got up on the hand rail inside the elevator, and, standing on it, was able to open the escape hatch and climb out. He knew not to look down, because there were a good ten stories of empty elevator shaft beneath him. He easily got hold of the iron rungs attached to the wall of the shaft and climbed up the remaining three floors to the parking garage. Once there, he stood on the narrow platform, wobbling a bit, and used all of his strength to pry the doors open. He looked out on the empty parking garage and sighed. Home free, he thought.

He walked quickly towards M3, his assigned parking spot, and was relieved to see that Berto hadn't moved his car. He got into the driver's seat and popped open the glove compartment, groping for his keys. Not being able to find them, he turned his head to look.

"Looking for these?" Kat stood six feet away from the car, jingling her partner's keys.

"Give. Them. Back." Josh said through clenched teeth, getting out of the car.

"Nope, I don't think I will. Come on, I'm supposed to take you to the briefing room, where we're all going to sit down and resume our little chat."

Josh made a grab for the keys. Kat moved them out of his reach, and at the same time dropped to the floor, swinging her leg behind him and sweeping him off his feet. He landed on his back.

"Rachel's right, you know. You need to train more. I can't believe you didn't see that coming."

Josh lashed out at her ankles with his left leg. She jumped out of range and unclipped something from her belt. It was aid green and the size of a tic-tac box.

"See this? Small EMP. I'm not really supposed to use it, but seeing as you're trying to go against a direct order, I think I'll be justified."

Josh moaned. "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!"

"Come on, up. Let's go."

Josh eyed the bandage on her damaged wrist. That was her weak point. If he could just-

"You should just go with her, hermano. Believe me; she's still bitter over her wrist. I don't think she would hesitate to use that right about now."

Kat knew what he was thinking. She offered him her other hand. "Come on, McGrath. You can go up on your own legs, or I can drag you up unconscious. It's up to you."

He got up on his own, knocking away her hand and strode past her into the waiting elevator. Kat followed him in, and the doors closed behind the both of them. Kat leaned nonchalantly against the wall, and Josh stood stiffly in the far corner, putting as great a distance between them as the confined space would allow. He stared directly in front of him, determined not to look at Kat. Berto could not be heard over the biolink. Josh assumed he was waiting in the briefing room with Jefferson.

After a while it was clear to him that he was the object of Kat's gaze.

"What are you looking at?" he asked, finally turning.

"You," she replied simply.

"Why am I so interesting to look at all of the sudden?"

"Because I'm wondering why you're making such a big deal about this. Climbing up and down elevator shafts? Almost making me use an EMP on you? Get real, McGrath, something's bothering you, and we all know it. There's no more hiding it, so you might as well just come on and tell us all."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Like hell you don't."

Josh opened his mouth to shoot back some scathing remark, but at that moment the elevator doors slid open and he saw Rachel Leeds standing there waiting for him.

Not thinking so clearly at the time he muttered "Figures. They send two women to control me."

This earned him yet another kick from Kat and a sharp smack in the back of his head from Rachel.

"Now that we've got our greetings out of the way, shall we proceed?" Without waiting for an answer, Rachel grabbed Josh's right arm and made the biolink visible. Having done that, she pushed the magic button and let go as Max pulled away from her. Unfazed, she grabbed his other arm, while Kat linked her left arm with his right. They walked down the hall in this fashion until they reached the oak door near the end of the hall and entered the briefing room.

"Ah, glad you've turned him back to Max. I wasn't too thrilled about Josh being seen running around the off-limits sectors of the building. Sit down."

Max was surprised to see that his adoptive father didn't look angry. Instead, he looked...tired. Max felt like groaning again. As much as he hated making his father angry, he hated disappointing him even more. He knew Jefferson was disappointed at him for not telling the truth about what was wrong, but what was he supposed to do? Say 'Uh, yeah, Dad, I've been hearing voices convincing me to do bad stuff. Is there some sort of SOP for that?'

"But it's not really bad stuff, is it Max?"

Max tried with all his might and pushed the voice out of his head. He was not going to let him control him. Whatever it was, it would go away. He had to act like nothing was wrong, and another one of his little 'outbreaks' with a whole room full of people wouldn't really be good proof of his mental health.

When he was done with his mental battle, Max looked up to see the rest of Team Steel, Rachel, and Jefferson Smith all staring at him.

"Um...hi?" he smiled weakly.

"Max, you've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Ok, Ricky."

"Max, knock it off," Rachel interrupted. "We're all interrupting our days to find out what's wrong with you. You could at least be a little cooperative."

Jefferson gave Rachel a nod. "Max, you've told us over and over that nothing is wrong, yet you blew up in my office, and I know your anger wasn't targeted at me because you weren't even listening to me the whole time. Now what is going on?"

Sensing he would not get a lot of cooperation from Max himself, Jefferson turned to Berto and Kat. "What about you two, do you know anything that you haven't told me yet? Anything at all that would be the least bit helpful?"

They both shook their heads, but Berto spoke up. "All we really know, sir, is that Max started talking to someone or something and was unreachable for a space of a few seconds. His inattentiveness wasn't due to lack of sleep because transphasik energy provides what he needs, and so he doesn't really need to sleep." At this point he looked over at Max, and saw the pleading look his friend was giving him. "However, sir, Max must have a pretty good reason not to tell us and to risk going against a direct order. Maybe you should let me work with him privately and see if I can fix whatever it is."

Jefferson sighed and shook his head, knowing that everything Berto had said was right, especially that last part. "Okay, Martinez, you have my permission to go ahead, however I will require an estimate on how long you will need once you get started...and if it's required that Max be given a break for a week or so."

Glancing at Max and seeing him shaking his head, Berto said "Yes sir, as soon as I finish the evaluation I'll give you an estimate, but I'm pretty sure Max will be just fine without a break."

Jefferson seemed satisfied with this, and didn't want to push the matter any further. "All right, dismissed." He walked out of the room and headed back towards his office. Kat, Berto, and Max headed for the door.

"Just a minute," Rachel said once Jefferson was out of hearing range, "Mr. Steel, I need to discuss your training, and Martinez, you should probably stay as well so you can keep Max to his program."

Kat hesitated for a moment, knowing that something was up, but after receiving a dismissive nod from Rachel, left the room, closing the door behind her. Rachel waited a few seconds before beginning. "First of all," she began, "I want to say to you, Dr. Martinez that when it comes to dealing with your partner, friend or not, you must do what's good for them in front of what they think will be good for them."

Max started to open his mouth to defend Berto. Rachel rounded on him next. "And you, Mr. Steel, should know better than to disobey orders, no matter what your reason may be. As you may or may not recall, we are all on the same side here. All on the same team. We are not different teams aimed towards the same goal, we are united. You're both dismissed." Rachel sat back down in the chair she had occipied during the meeting.

"Hold on a minute, you can't dismiss us! If we want to stay here, we're going to stay right here." With that, Max sat back down in his seat as well. Berto kept his position against the wall and watched the two glare at each other. After twenty seconds or so, Max started fidgeting. "Um, yeah. I'm going to go now."

Ok, this might be delayed getting up. This sites been a bit wacky, as you can see from the updates on the home page. So, if it's up late, my sincerest apologies, and if it's not, then forget you read this. Oh by the way, UKHoneyB and I were trying to figure this out the other day, maybe someone could help. In one of the episodes, Berto says via biolink to Max "Impressive, hermano, even for you." When the hell did he say that?! The stupid quote popped into my head, and I can't for the life of me remember when he actually said that!!!!! ARGH!!!!!! As you can see, I get worked up quite easily. Anyway, if you know it, help please! Thanks! Ciao!