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She flinched as the cleaning solution was brushed against her cheek and the long, thin gash that had appeared as a result of the falling glass from the building. It stung and the smell of old blood found its way to her nose. She looked across the street. Fire-fighters were still working on putting out the smaller blazes that refused to calm themselves into ash, but the rest of the building was a hollow shell of what it had once been. She found it difficult to believe that such a structure could house so many people. It looked so feeble and weak, barely capable of holding its own weight. A loud crash sounded out from inside the building as a staircase collapsed in on itself. A huge dust cloud filled the air.

Her eyes flitted across to the slightly mismatched pair sitting on the edge of the sidewalk. She smiled at them both, understanding quite how odd a couple they made. The small girl, pale with intensely crazy hair who could talk for hours about nothing; and the tall man, a gorgeous bronze colour touching his skin, his dark hair neat as per usual, who preferred to remain silent, thoughtful, not that he could have got a word in edgeways. They had been sitting there for at least half an hour. She could tell they were both as nervous as if they were about to take an exam on each others likes and dislikes, but they seemed to fit. She understood as well as anyone who knew the slightest thing about the whole situation that it would take a lot more than half an hour for them to even feel like they knew each other well enough to be related. She knew it would take a hell of a lot more than one conversation. But at least it was a beginning.

'Jess, are you using paint stripper on that wound or what?' she asked indignantly, glaring at him, a mocking glint in her eye.

'Well, if you would stop being such a baby and quit wincing every time I go anywhere near your face then it would be a lot less painful…' He faded out as he noticed that Shalimar's gaze was concentrated over his shoulder. There was no more laughter present on her face. He turned around to see the victim of Shalimar's unforgiving glare and Shalimar took the chance to stand up and stalk past him.

'You picked the wrong daughter to kidnap,' she said, loudly enough to make Taylor and Brennan turn around and watch from where they were sitting.

'I didn't have a choice in the matter-' Daveigh began.

'You always have a choice,' Shalimar yelled in reply. 'And my daughter may have forgiven you for making the wrong one but I'm not quite so easy to persuade.'

'I got her out, didn't I?' Daveigh replied.

'Yeah, you did,' Shalimar answered, her voice dangerously calm. 'But you're also the one who got her in there in the first place, so don't expect me to save your life again.'

Brennan watched as Shalimar walked away from her scene with Daveigh. He knew exactly what she was going through, understood every emotion Shalimar was experiencing because he was going through it all too. It was weird, he never thought he'd get the whole parental thing. When he was younger he had been under the impression that he was gonna be young forever. He had had a major peter pan complex fuelling him. And now he couldn't imagine himself not being a father. He had certainly grown up in his years with Mutant X. He had been taught a lot of things but he had a feeling that Taylor was gonna be one of the most influential teachers he would ever have the honour to learn anything from.

He turned back to the girl he had been having the most animated conversation with. She was definitely Shalimar's child.

'She hasn't changed,' he said with raised eyebrows.

'Good.'

He laughed out loud, his voice carrying on the wind to her ears. She hadn't walked far from them, wanting to make sure that they were both okay. It was good to hear those sounds again. She hadn't realised how much she had missed them, or him.

'You okay?' Lexa asked, taking Jesse by the arm and leading him away from the group of people, CIA agents, fire-fighters and various civilians. Her eyes stared straight into his and she could see the doubts that seemed to be a permanent fixture at the moment.

He considered answering with a simple 'yeah' but, seeing her expression he wisely guessed that that wouldn't be such a good idea. 'I'm just worried about them.'

'I know what you mean,' she replied.

'Its just that Brennan and Shalimar have never made it as a couple. They were together for a couple of months at most and before that they played so many damn games with each other that I didn't know what was what. And now Taylor's met Brennan. I know he's gonna be a great parent and so is Shalimar but I just don't know whether they can be a family.'

Lexa leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, softly, gently. He could have melted in that kiss. Eventually they pulled apart, both pairs of eyes on each other. Lexa leant into him, resting her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his waist. She loved the feeling of him against her, it made her feel like the world wasn't quite as crazy as it seemed. She could still hear the quiet crackling of the building as it slowly cooled down. It had been such a strange day and it felt like hours had passed, it felt like the day should have finished already.

She looked up as a CIA agent walked towards her. His face held an urgency that turned her stomach. She didn't want to have to face another battle already.

'Ms Pierce,' he said as he reached the couple. They reluctantly pulled apart.

'Yeah?'

'The Dominion will already know about the events of today so the advice of HQ is that we move as quickly as possible. They will have no qualms about attacking now, while we're all at ease.'

'Okay, thank you,' she replied, nodding her head slightly. She was too tired to even think about moving anywhere but she knew that what she had just been told was true. The Dominion knew about everything already, they would have made it their business to know and it was equally true that they would not think twice about taking out the entire Mutant X team in broad daylight and in front of hundreds of witnesses. But where to go was something she hadn't quite considered yet. Agents from the CIA would be okay, they weren't who the Dominion were after but the situation was slightly different for the team, Daveigh and Taylor included.

She looked up at Jesse and frowned. He was smirking at her.

'What?' she said, a hint of indignation making him smirk harder.

'Its not you,' he replied, on the defensive. 'Its just that I may have an answer to the question you haven't asked yet.'

'How do you do that?' she asked, genuinely curious as to how he always knew what she was thinking. He grabbed her hand as they walked towards the rest of the team.

'You may think you're mysterious but I can read you like an open book,' he replied.

Laughter filled the air as the happy couple released their tension.

Silence encapsulated everything. It was like it had seeped into the walls while everyone had turned their backs and now it was beyond difficult to get rid of. Brennan had been under the impression that he would never see this building again. It was the end result of some of the most surreal days he had ever had to live through. Their footsteps echoed through the empty hallways, some of the sound dulled by the numerous cobwebs which had taken up residence in their absence. His arm brushed against a wall as he walked and a huge cloud of dust was swept up around his face. He closed his eyes in an attempt to stop the slight stinging sensation and cleared his throat. He opened his eyes again and wiped the back of his other hand across his face. He watched as Shalimar walked further into the main room of Sanctuary. It was weird seeing her in there once more. It had been so long since the last time they had all been in the only place they had ever really called home. She looked so small and he was finding it increasingly difficult to not forgive her for lying to him. He was still angry and there was going to be one hell of a conversation between the pair of them when they got a minute to talk about it all but at that moment he couldn't think of a single reason why he had ever left her.

She could sense his eyes burning into the back of her skull. She felt an imperceptible shiver run along her spine and she continued moving, trying to shake the feeling of weakness in her knees. She was immediately distracted from her desire to turn around and jump into Brennan's arms by the sight that appeared before her. She had never for one moment suspected that she might see this building again. Everything seemed so familiar, nothing had changed. It was so strange that everything in her life had become different, for better or worse and yet the one place she could always rely on was still the same. It comforted her to know that there were things she could depend on. She walked further in, recognising things she had forgotten. Everything looked grimy, filthy but she could tell that there was definite promise in the building, there was potential for everything to become that bit brighter. She stopped walking and looked around her. Patches of sunlight flickered across the floor, few and far between due to the dirt that covered the windows. She felt a smile appear on her face. With the return of the team to Sanctuary it seemed like hope wasn't a completely abstract concept to them, it could actually be a reality.

She turned around and their eyes locked, something that seemed to be happening a lot lately. The imminent conversation between them was coming, she couldn't stop that but she felt a whole lot better about it than she had in a long time.

'What do you say we get this place cleaned up?'

Lexa's voice rang out in the still atmosphere. She raised her eyebrows as everybody turned to look at her.

'And, just so you all know this was Jesse's idea, not mine so you can blame it all on him.'