Shawna knew that cold didn't really bother her. She could deal with most temperatures ambivalently. But she couldn't stop shivering the minute she walked into the operating room where her brother laid cut open on a table. She wasn't really sure what to expect when she scrubbed in. Hell, the only time before that she had ever been in an operating room was when she was the patient back at Manticore. If it hadn't been for watching medical dramas on TV she wouldn't have known how to scrub in properly. What the hell was she doing there?

Everything was calm when she walked into the room. It was ice cold, but not at all like a TV show where everything was rushed and people were shouting and calling for wild procedures. Instead there was just the soft hum of the machinery, some occasional beeps from a piece of equipment and the low murmuring of voices from the surgical team. Shawna recognized Jhondie despite her being masked and gowned.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dr. Baker," Jhondie said without turning around and seeing who had entered. "She will be consulting on this case." A nurse immediately came over to help Shawna get into all of the gear required for her to stay in the room.

Shawna approached the operating table gingerly once the nurse decided she had enough layers of protection. She had worn biological warfare suits with less protection than this. She had dealt with a million battle wounds before, but never anything like this. Jhondie's hands were moving like an artist's; each stroke of the scalpel prices and efficient. It was one thing to see someone mangled on the field. You did what you could to keep them alive long enough to get to the surgeons back at base. Now she was with the surgeon and it wasn't just another soldier on the table.

"I'm not a doctor," she barely whispered into Jhondie's ear.

"I know," Jhondie whispered back. "But you know far more about X-6 physiology than I do." Her eyes never left her patient as she sutured yet another small rupture.

Shawna took a deep breath. Okay, so she did know more than the others. But she wasn't a surgeon at all and despite her experience, she wasn't a real doctor. She shouldn't be there. But this was Cole and she was going to do whatever was needed so that he would live. You know what you need to, she told herself. You know what a bunch of norms couldn't imagine. You know things that Jhondie doesn't understand.

"I'm going to start on the spinal cord," the other surgeon announced. "With a little luck, there might be some sensation."

"Where's the damage?" Shawna heard herself asking him with far more confidence than she was really feeling.

"Lumbar," he replied. "He won't walk again, but we might be able to get continence."

Shawna snorted. "Is there something else that you can be doing that's critical?"

The doctor shot her daggers. "The longer these nerves are separated, the less likely there is going to be the slightest degree of healing."

"On normal humans," Shawna shot back. "I know for a fact that you've never cut open anyone like him before. There are a whole lot of stem cells floating around in his blood right now. You just make sure the nerve ends are close enough and they'll do the rest."

"Rich," Jhondie interrupted gently. "Dr. Baker is an expert on transgenics. If she feels that his spinal cord will heal on it's own, then I need you in other places."

Both of them looked at Shawna, waiting for her confirmation. This was why she hated command positions, she thought as their eyes bored into her. "He'll be walking in a couple of weeks, max," she declared firmly. "The last spinal injury I saw took four days to heal."

Rich whistled low. "Billions of dollars spent to create transgenic weapons and I don't know how many patients I've seen who would have done anything to have a way to be able to walk again." He glanced at Jhondie. "No wonder "The Truth" was so adamant on no more genetics programs like Manticore."

"One reason among many," she replied. They all went back to work, stitching, cauterizing and digging out bullet fragments. Within minutes the staff knew for certain that Shawna was also transgenic. Within the hour, not a single one cared. She knew what she was doing and even Rich had to agree that her expertise was making a difficult job far easier.

At some point another doctor entered the operating room. Again, Jhondie greeted Dr. Ramirez and introduced him to Shawna without turning around. It was slightly creepy to Shawna that she knew every little thing that was going on in her operating room, but it was also rather helpful as well. Ramirez told them that Heather was out of surgery and doing fine. He asked how their patient was.

"You want the real story or the family update?" Jhondie asked. That surprised Shawna a little. She thought it couldn't be going that bad since he was still alive.

"How much different is it?" he asked, coming closer to look at what was going on.

"Remember that thirty-seven car pile up and how all of the serious victims were taken here?" she asked. He nodded. "This is worse."

His forehead wrinkled. "And he's still alive?"

"You've never met him," Shawna piped up. "He's far too stubborn to die."

"I think it was more that he was in good company when he was shot," Jhondie said to her.

"Who?"

"Heather."

"Heather?" Shawna thought for a second. "I guess so if she kept the wrong kind of blood from being transfused."

"More than that. He started bleeding more when she was taken away," Jhondie pointed out.

If she had to make a decision, Shawna would have to say that she was closer to Liz than she was Heather. She had more in common with Liz and was the one that taught her how to drive to win in a race. It wasn't how Shawna had come into Heather's life either. The girl adored Xander. It was just that Liz was more like Shawna was at her age, minus the occasional assassination.

"You really think she's that strong?" Shawna asked. She didn't spend enough time to know what Heather was capable of. Liz, yes, that's why she wasn't in the slightest surprised about what they had been doing in Europe.

"I know she's capable of some rather amazing things when she's under stress," Jhondie answered.

Both of the other doctors in the room were stunned. "Why didn't you get her into medicine if she can redirect blood flow?" Ramirez managed to get out. Jhondie had said telekinetic to him before, but he didn't understand the implications and how much that could be used.

"Law enforcement got to her first," Shawna replied.

"Simply amazing," he muttered. "Well, I need to go and let Heather's family know she's well. Page me if you need me to scrub in."

"I will," Jhondie said. "Her brother, Daniel is out there and he can let her parents know how she's doing." She had a feeling he would want to spend as little time with that family as possible.

More time passed as they worked diligently. Cole had been shot five times, once from the front, the rest in the back. Shawna speculated that it was to keep Heather from getting hurt, or else there wouldn't have been any way for someone to actually be able to hit him. She had seen the man dodge a hail of bullets before. But this time he hadn't and there was so much damage that they would think they were almost done with one thing and then have to stop because something else was getting critical. And they didn't exactly have a limitless supply of blood either.

"Do you know the ETA on anyone else?" Jhondie asked, eyeing the blood they had left. If Cole would just stop bleeding in a new place every two minutes, this would be going much better.

"Cray's at least eight to nine hours out," Shawna replied. "He had to make sure his boat's taken care of before he could leave." She glanced at the clock. "I'm sure Liz, Cameron and Alicia are going to be here as soon as a plane can get them. Nobody could get hold of Ty. And then there's me."

"Xander can't get anyone else here?"

"The ones left are mostly abroad. There's one out in California besides Cray, but that's it. I don't think anyone else could be recalled from what they're doing, and they wouldn't be able to get here in time even if they could."

She went to say something else, but a small glint caught her eye. Without thinking about it, she used her enhanced vision to clarify the scene. A tiny sliver of metal was ripping deeper into one of the arteries, catching onto it, ripping and then getting pulled down further to stick in another place.

"Hold on a second," she muttered, grabbing some fine tweezers and carefully removing the offending sliver. A cauterizing wand sealed the breaches and the artery wall actually held for once. But now Rich was looking at her oddly.

"Your eyes," he said softly. "When they dilate like that, you can see better?" Shawna nodded. Rich glanced at his boss and took a big swing. "Jhondie, why do you use the magnifiers then?"

Jhondie stiffened. She knew that this moment was going to eventually happen, but still the initial instinct was to lie. Stay in the shadows, not casually converse with coworkers about her origins. It seemed like every person in the room was frozen, waiting for her response.

"Because it's very tiring to use constantly," Jhondie replied, trying to keep her voice perfectly neutral. "I do on occasion." Everyone took an awe-filled second to digest what she had just admitted to. There might have been more questions but the staff was too well trained. They had a life to save and then the gossip could flow freely.

Jhondie averaged between two or three job offers a month from various hospitals around the world. She had been seriously tempted by a few of them, but had stayed in New York. Now she had to wonder if they would still come if the hospital asked her to resign over this. Maybe she could go back to California. Only in Los Angeles could a transgenic surgeon be considered "trendy" and exclusive, someone that only the beautiful people could have access to. But this was *her* hospital and as much as they missed LA, Justin couldn't exactly leave New York's "Truth" East Coast headquarters and...and...problem.

"He's going into arrhythmia," Jhondie spoke up urgently. Everyone suddenly started moving quickly in response to her statement. A nurse grabbed a tray out of one cabinet and another started filling syringes with various drugs.

"Excuse me, honey," a nurse with a syrupy southern accent said as she slid in front of Shawna. The nurse immediately began holding some piece of equipment for Jhondie and moving it to her directions.

"How do you know?" Shawna asked in confusion. Everything was going along fine! Jhondie didn't answer, too focused on her patient to worry about nonessentials.

The nurse glanced back at Shawna. "The best trauma surgeons always know," she explained, immediately going back to what she was doing. A bleep on one of the monitors signaled an irregularity. Another odd bleep and then the monitor went nuts.

Everything seemed to blur to Shawna as she realized that her brother was clinically dead on the table in front of her. She was pushed back, the experiences team pulling in tighter to save their patient. She could barely tell apart the voices, as they called out vital information, Jhondie calling for drugs, procedures, changes. Shawna's back was literally against the wall. She had never been sure if she believed in God, but now she found herself praying silently, the same words over and over.

Please, God, no, not this, please let them save him, oh God, no, please no...