THE CHOICES WE MAKE

Continued...

Brennan was bored. Shalimar and Emma had both awoken early this morning, and, insisting that they both felt fine, had left to go shopping. Brennan wasn't convinced. Both seemed happy enough but he could still see a shadow of some repressed emotions in Emma's eyes. Even Shalimar seemed edgier than usual. Still, Adam had supported their plan to take the day off which had left Brennan and Jesse at Sanctuary alone. Jesse had spent the morning doing some sort of data reconfiguration for Adam, Brennan had intended to help, but after an hour of staring at a scrolling screen, he had decided he wasn't really in the mood.

Thinking that poetry might help, he had collected one of his favourite books from his room and plonked himself down on the couch to read... that had been 2 hours ago, and the page had not yet been turned.

"Hey man," Jesse interrupted the elementals' thoughts with a firm nudge on the shoulder.

"Hey," Brennan looked up. "How's the data thing going?"

"To be honest, it's even started to give me a headache! Do you want to go a couple of rounds in the dojo? I could really use the action."

"Why not," to be honest, Brennan thought, he could use some action as well. The two men spent a few minutes warming up, and then began sparring.

"So..." Brennan swung a kick at Jesse, who ducked and retaliated with a spin of his own, "What do you think the girls are doing now?"

"Probably bought enough outfits to dress half the women in New York and have moved onto shoes or... bags by now."

"I don't know," Brennan grinned, "I'm having more fun picturing the lingerie shopping that Shalimar was talking about." Smirking at the thought he dodged Jesse's left hook and jumped to avoid the following sweep.

"Shalimar used to get me to go shopping with her before you and Emma came here."

"Yeah" Brennan delivered a short series of punches, which Jesse blocked successfully.

"It was awful though. Firstly because shopping isn't really my thing, and secondly...well"

"What?"

"It was weird seeing her parade around in all these outfits, asking me to chose which top went better with which jeans, and which necklace suited her skin colour. I was out of my league! Plus she tried to get me to help her pick out underwear for a big date she was going on..." He frowned slightly at the memory and was caught off guard by Brennan's kick, which connected with his left side and threw him temporarily off balance.

The larger man backed off for a second, giving the molecular a chance to recover,

"What, you never thought of Shal in underwear before?" He laughed at the shocked look on his friends face.

"We're friends, it's never entered my head to think of her in a way that might compromise that."

"I find that hard to believe, I mean, look at her... blindness isn't a side effect of your mutation is it?"

"How come you're so interested in my relationship with Shalimar all of a sudden? I thought you guys had come to some sort of understanding to keep the flirtation to just that."

"Sort of, I don't know. It's difficult; working with someone you find attractive every day, living with them, going out with them. Sometimes I wonder if we should just stop dancing around and give it a go."

"Are you talking about Shalimar now, or Emma?"

"What's Emma got to do with anything?"

"Oh come on man, I saw you two last night, you looked pretty cosy before I barged in."

"Emma's my friend, I care about her but that's all there is to it," Brennan was starting to feel the blood rush to his head. The heightened emotions now running through the dojo had caused the "friendly sparring session" to take a more serious turn and Brennan was forced to dodge several furious punches from the Elemental as he considered the new direction their conversation was taking.

"Really? So you're saying there's nothing going on between you and Emma?" Jesse couldn't explain the irritation he was feeling towards Brennan but venting his anger into his fists was definitely helping.

"There's nothing going on between me and Emma!" Brennan growled. He wondered why he felt a slight pang of guilt saying this. Nothing was going on. They were close, but that was a bond that had grown when they became the two new comers to Mutant X. They had both felt a bit like the outsiders, and consequently, had spent a lot of time together. Adam had preferred them to go out in pairs for safety, and he and Emma had coupled up when one or the other had wanted to go out. Though they were now fully integrated with the team, that bond remained, though Brennan had to admit she had seemed to be acting a little strangely around him recently. But where had this reaction from Jesse come from,

"Are you jealous, Jess, is that it? Which one is it you want? Do you hate the fact that Shalimar finds me attractive when she's in heat? Or do you wish Emma would connect with you the way she does with me?"

"Oh I'm sure Emma and I would have no problem 'connecting', she's not as innocent as you seem to think!"

"Don't you dare talk about Emma like that!"

Wham! There was a crack as Brennan's fist connected hard with Jesses face. What followed was a furious fight, with neither caring anymore about keeping the impact to a minimum.

"You bastard!" Brennan swore as his fist made contact with jesses massed out form, causing pain to sear up his arm. Jesse merely glowered back, a satisfied gleam in his eyes. The electricity had started to spark from Brennan's fingers, flickering ominously...

"Guys! Stop this now!" Both men spun round distracted to find Adam running towards them angrily, "Do you want to tell me what the hell you two are doing?"

"Nothing Adam," Jesse stated flatly, still glaring at the elemental in front of him, "We were just training."

"It didn't look like that to me." Adam looked between the two; Brennan, realizing his fingers were still emitting a blue voltage, quickly closed his fist to extinguish the charge.

"Hey guys... we're back!" Shalimar's raised voice sang out just as the girls rounded the corner and appeared at the foot of the dojo. Realizing the tension between the two men her smile faded into a look of concern. Both Brennan and Jesse were still red in the face and panting from their conflict.

"Hey" Adam made the effort to greet them but was unable to keep the edge out of his voice. Shalimar and Emma looked between them

"What's going on?" the feral asked suspiciously.

"It's nothing" Jesse repeated, he certainly wasn't about to discuss how the fight had escalated between with the two girls.

Emma looked at Adam for an answer, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. "We'll discuss this later," he mumbled to the boys and walked out of the dojo without a glance at the others. Emma felt a little hurt at Adams briskness; he was like a father to her and was one of the few people she relied on to be honest with her.

She turned her gaze instead to Brennan who forced a smile onto his face and said in a would be encouraging voice, "Let's see what you bought then."

The distraction worked on Shalimar. Shoes, earrings and even bras were quickly being liberated from their neat bags and boxes and held up or tried on for the boys' perusal. While Jesse was feigning interest in a new pair of knee high red boots, Emma found a moment to really focus on the tall man next to her. Brennan's mind seemed to be humming with some unexpressed anger, but the young psionic fond she was unable to ascertain the reason for the rage.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked in a low voice. Brennan didn't look at her.

"It's nothing Em,"

"It didn't seem like that way to me,"

"Really, drop it, I said I don't want to discuss it," the told her shortly. Feeling a little taken aback by the tone in his voice, she considered for a second getting a read off him for spite. Shaking her head in frustration she announced that she was going to put her purchases in her room, prompting Shalimar to follow suit and start gathering her things back into their bags.

"I'll start dinner," Jesse turned away from Brennan before he had the chance to get worked up again. Before anyone had a chance to get any futher, however, Adam returned looking serious.

"Dinner will have to wait people." Everyone looked at him; noone was really in the mood for any sort of emergency that evening.

"I've just gotten word of some unusual activity involving Genomex representatives at a major hospital clinic and I need a couple of you to check it out."

"I'll go." Emma offered, the tension in the place was giving her a headache; she looked to Shalimar, who got the hint,

"I'll go with you," she offered.

"No, I need some fresh air, I'll go with her." Emma groaned inwardly. Brennan's offer of company was definitely not what she needed right now. She could feel her headache increasing.

"Fine, Brennan and Emma will go," Adam clearly wasn't in the mood to argue the issue, "Take the Double Helix and I'll send you the information en route."

Walking dejectedly out to where the ship was parked Emma realized Brennan still hadn't actually looked at her yet. She wondered vaguely at his apparent eagerness to accompany her. Sighing she watched as he pushed the button to open the doors; this was going to be a long flight.

Continued in chapter 8...