Chapter Three

It was two days later when Jesse decided to come back. He just needed time to be alone to really think things out with out being surrounded by memories. He came to the conclusion that it's just life, and nothing will stay the same, he just had to live with the fact that he and Shalimar aren't that close anymore. However when Jesse went over to talk to Shalimar, her eye's flashed their deadly yellow. She walked over to him and with her right hand slapped powerfully on his cheek. And before he could say anything she spat, "Go to hell."

So the next few days, Shalimar and Jesse did not speak one word to each other. If they needed something from each other, they would ask Lexa or Brennan to get it. And if they were in the same room, one if not both, would get up and leave. Brennan made the suggestion to Lexa that they should lock the two in one of the hallways. But Lexa reminded him it would have been impossible to get them that close to do it. They knew that the two blondes will be too stubborn to say anything. Their childish actions were driving Brennan and Lexa up the wall and the Dominion was getting feed up with their behavior as well.

"Miss. Pierce, if Mr. Kilmartin and Mss. Fox don't resolve their differences soon, they will be replaced." The mysterious bearded man announced.

"But why?" Lexa was shocked that the Dominion would give up two of their best operatives just because of a little fight.

"They are becoming a liability. And you know that we don't have the time nor the tolerance for people like that."

"But they are still a liable source for this operation even though-"

"They have 42 hours to resolve their issues."

"Dammit." Lexa cursed as the computer screen went black. She quickly got up from the desk and did a blood hound's search for Brennan. She found him in his room working out. "Brennan we have a problem."

"What is it this time Lex?"

"We got 42 hours before the Dominion replaces Jesse and Shalimar."

"What?" Brennan said full on shocked as he dropped the dumb weights. Lexa began to tell him about the conversation she had with her Dominion contact, and his reaction was bout the same as Lexa's.

"So, what are we going to do?" Brennan asked as he took a seat on the edge on his bed.

"I don't know. All I know is that we don't have that much time to get them back together."

35 hours later, a mission had come up for the team, and for Brennan and Lexa, this couldn't have come at a worse time. All they knew was that they were going to brake into some high top corporation, to steal some files that hold valuable information, and then they had to destroy the main computer so nobody else would get hold of this "dangerous information".

Their plan was simple, Shalimar, Brennan, and Lexa had to keep any guards busy, and while Jesse gets the files that they needed. Everything was going quit smoothly. They broken in without detection and found the room they needed. But when Jesse started hacking into the computer, he accidentally set something off, which triggered the alarms.

"Nice going Jess. Why don't you do it again in case they didn't hear you the first time?" Shalimar shouted at him with hated sarcasm.

"Shut up and let me work, god dammit!" He yelled back.

In a few minutes the three of them were in a heated battle with the security guards. After Shalimar had knocked the guard she was fighting down, she turned to see how the others where doing. That's when she saw two crucial chooses. A thin tall Asian man aimed a gun at Brennan, ready to shoot, while another man who was much more built and a bit shorter then the gun man, was creeping up to Jesse with a knife in his hand. Both of them had no idea what their situation was. Brennan was busy fighting off three guys at a time, while Jesse was so concentration with what he was doing-an elephant can be right behind and he wouldn't know it, and there was no time she could warn them, in other words she had to pick one to save.

With out thinking she ran to the man that she loved and cared for most…that gun man had no idea what attacked him. Shalimar had hit him so fast and so hard, that when his head came in contacted with the hard marble floor, it killed him. But not before he shot the gun, missing his target of course. At the sound of the gun shot, Jesse spun around to see what happened. He saw Shalimar walking over to Brennan, who sent his last guy down with an electrical attack, and her giving him a big hug.

'How typical of her to make sure that big head of his, gets bigger.' Jesse thought.

He turned back to finish downloading the files, he was greeted by a knife into his upper chest. Jesse pulled the deep imbedded knife and returned the knife to the man by stabbing him into the heart. When he was sure the man was dead, he went back to the computer to finish what he was doing.

But soon he became to feel light headed and black dots danced in front of his face. He looked down at his shoulder to see blood running down his arm and staining his shirt. That damn bastard stabbed a main vain. He grasped his shoulder as he fell to the ground.

Shalimar then remembered Jesse's attacker, she turned just in time to see him fall. Brennan, who also saw this, ran to his fallen friend. He moved Jesse's hand away and when it was replaced with his own a small gasp escaped from Jesse when a stronger pressure appeared on his chest.

"Shal get the helix over here." Brennan barked orders. "Stay with me Jess."

"I'm not going to die on you. If that's what you're worried about." Jesse said between gasps of pain. When Lexa finished making sure that the place was secure, she ran over to Brennan only to see Jesse covered in blood. Brennan saw Lexa's jacket and quickly got up and ripped it off of her.

"Hey." Lexa was cut off when Brennan folded up her jacket and applied more presser than before making Jesse cry out in pain once again.

"Sorry bro, I have to do it."

"I know." Jesse said weakly.

"You owe me a new jacket now Jesse." Lexa said jokily.

"I'll make sure to get you one that is blood resistant." Jesse said laughing but was cut off when pain shot though his body. "Lexa, the disk is in the drive. All you need to do is fry that piece of crap." Jesse said right before he lost the war with unconscious.

When Shalimar brought the helix to the closest area possible, Brennan carefully picked up Jesse and carried him to the plane. Lexa turned to the computers she pulled the disk out of the drive and then with a twist of her wrists, the computers few out sparks and flames. Once she was satisfied she ran to the helix. They flew the helix as fast as they could to Dr. Markus' office, because even though the wound wasn't deadly Jesse was losing lots of blood.

When they got there the doctor took Jesse straight into surgery and all the rest of them could do was wait. One of the nurses led Brennan to the restroom so he could wash as much blood he could off. However it did little good because Brennan's shirt still smelled and had that red substance stained on it. It was about an hour since Jesse went into surgery but before anyone of them could start to worry about their team mate's condition, Dr. Markus walked over to the group.

"How is he?" Brennan asked.

"He'll be fine. He lost a pretty amount of blood, but nothing serous was damaged."

"So when can he leave?" Lexa inquired.

"We will release him in a couple of hours, just to make sure that everything is fine. But I need you guys to make sure that he doesn't do any lifting with is right arm for a few weeks."

"Okay." Brennan and Lexa said. But Shalimar was quietly sitting there thinking of what just happened. She almost lost her best friend-and he could have died not knowing that how much he is apart of her life.

Two hour later they were back in Sanctuary. Jesse was still weak and still a bit groggy from the surgery that with a bit of help, he make it to his room to sleep some more. It was a few hours later when Jesse decided to wake up and face the day, or what was left of it. He had to admit, he was feeling pretty good, a bit stiff, but the pain killers were doing their job. He jumped in the shower to clean himself up, but found it hard to do so with six stitches in his upper chest. Hew was I there until the hot water ran cold. Getting out, he made his way to the kitchen, to get some late dinner. He looked through the fridge for a while, until he found some thing he wanted. Jesse pulled out a soda and with his right hand, took out a box of leftover pizza.

Brennan was walking into the kitchen to grab a snack, when he saw Jesse pick up the box of pizza. He ran over and grabbed the box out of Jesse's hand before the pizza could make it past the fridge door.

"Brennan?" Jesse said a bit confused.

"You are not supposed to pick up anything with your right arm. 'Cause none of us want to stitch you back up." Brennan said with a smile.

"Okay. Then can you put a few slices in the microwave."

"Sure thing bro."

"How is Mr. Kilmartin's condition?" Lexa's Dominion contacted asked with very little emotion.

"He lost a bit of blood but besides that-"

"And what about the disk?"

"It should be in your mailbox with in the hour."

"Mr. Kilmartin will be leaving in 24 hours, and Ms. Fox 2 hour after."

"But he got the information and did everything that needed to be done even with their little feud."

"Sounds like some personal involvement, you know that it's forbidden in our line of work."

"I just don't see what is the big deal. So you need to give me a damn good reason why you are taking two great people off the team."

"You are in no position to be demanding information, or to be trying the Council's patients Lexa, you know when they say something it must be done."

"When dose the Council make any good decisions-"

"Do it Lexa." And before she could object any more the feed was cut off.

Lexa slowly made her way into the kitchen. She felt a little like death coming to take away a good man with no warning. In fact that was exactly what she was doing. When Lexa turned the corner she saw Jesse sitting there at the table with one of his million dollar smiles. Why did she have to tell him? Why couldn't the Dominion do their dirty work themselves for once?

"Lexa you want to join us?" Jesse asked. "There is some food left…some where on this table."

"Um, Jesse I have to tell you something."

His face fell when he saw that look, the look of a stoned heart. It was a look he hadn't seen since the first few months she joined Mutant X "What, what is it?"

"The Dominion is replacing you."

"What? Why? If it's because of my shoulder-"

"You have 24 hours to pack. So I'll start now." She said with no emotion. Jesse got up cursing and left without a second thought.

"Brennan, have you seen Shal?" She asked.

"No." He said in a whisper. 'So this is it.' He thought 'The last of my family is being taken away from me.'

Jesse walked to his room, cursing at everything. He was mad, no mad wasn't eve close to describe how he felt. It was more like pre hatred ran through his veins instead of blood. When he reached his door he was shocked to see a bunch of different yellow flowers tied to the door. And for some reason he couldn't understand but that hatred and anger disappeared in a blink of an eye. He slowly opened the door to see pictures of him and Shal all over his room, each one showed a different memory.

Like, the first time he had beaten Shal in the Dojo, both of them asleep on the couch. Them with the first mutant they saved together. There was one with him laying flat on his back, Shalimar towering over him, with a piece of chocolate in her hand like she won a gold metal. He smiled as he remembered that they were fighting for the last piece of candy.

Then he noticed that a song was also playing in the background. Listening to the words and looking at the pictures, it hit Jesse like a ton of bricks.

Tell me what I have to do tonight
'Cause I'd do anything to make it right
Let's be us again

I'm sorry for the way I lost my head
I don't know why I said the things I said
Let's be us again

Here I stand
With everything to lose
And all I know is I don't want to ever see the end
Baby please, I'm reaching out for you
Won't you open up your heart and let me come back in
Let's be us again

I miss the colors that you brought into my life
Your golden smile, those blue-green eyes
I miss your gentle voice in lonely times like now
Saying it'll be alright

I miss those times, I miss those nights
I even miss our silly fights
The making up
The morning talks
And those late afternoon walks…

Jesse turned around to see Shalimar standing behind him. And without any words, their eyes forgave. They reached for each other and pulled into a strong embrace. Jesse's arm was killing him; his arm could be falling off for all he cared. It didn't matter, he had his friend back, and he had his sister.

They were like that for what seemed like forever. Brennan headed to Jesse's room to see if he needed some help. But once he saw them, he ran to get a camera to take a picture. Because he knew that this was a memory that they would like to remember. He smiled. Everything was going to be okay. Then he ran to tell Lexa the good news.

After a while they pulled away, and Shalimar caught that sad look on his face. "Jesse are you okay, is your shoulder hurting?"

"No its not that. The Dominion is replacing me." He said as the anger started to come back. He finally got the one thing that he truly cared for, back, only to lose it again.

"What?" Shalimar said in disbelief.

"He's just kidding. He's not going anywhere." Lexa said as she ran in with Brennan behind her.

"So I'm not…"

"No." She said with a big smile.