Brennan looked up from the bed as Emma entered the door to their motel room closing it behind her and walking over to the dresser. She set the ice bucket down and took a towel off the rack by the sink. She sat herself beside him on the bed with a smaller bag of ice in her hand and wrapped the towel around it before gently brushing his hand from his head and placing the bag against his already very back eye. The groan from the elemental at her actions told her he was still uncomfortable at the pain caused by her former feral fiancé.

She reached down to the bed and lifted the cloth he'd been using to dab his cuts and took it to the sink to soak it and washed her hands. She wasn't sure why the act didn't seem to make her feel any cleaner and she sighed before turning back to her new husband.

"What are we gonna do, Brennan? Shalimar won't give up. She'll try and find us as soon as she wakes up."

"Well," he began and removed the bag from his eye with a grunt of pain. "I think she just needs some time to deal with this ya know. Let herself cool down for a while."

"And we're just supposed to just stay here until then?" she asked walking over to the door to make sure it was locked.

"For now yeah. We can't go back for the car or they'll be able to track us. I think we should just wait it out here."

Emma sighed knowing he was probably right and sat herself back on the edge of the bed. Brennan grinned and scooted himself closer to her wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into a passionate kiss.

"Besides," he began upon removing himself from her lips. "I can think of worse things than staying here all day," he informed with a sly grin as his lips captured hers again and his body leaned back down to the bed, his arms taking her with him.

"Come on," Shalimar said as she wrapped her arms around the molecular still lying on the ground. "Get up."

Jesse stood to his feet with the help of the feral and rubbed his head as he regained his balance. Minor aches from tackling Brennan were still evident in his body and a slight headache was apparent.

"Where are they?" he asked turning to look at the feral and then scan the area.

"I don't know. They've been gone for an hour."

"Lets get to the Helix we're track where they're driving-"

"They didn't take the car," she flatly stated and opened her palm to reveal their comlinks. "I don't think they wanna be found."

"We'll find a way, Shal," Jesse assured.

"I don't know that we should bother."

Shalimar tuned and began to make her way to the Helix. Her words worried the molecular but he ran to catch up with her.

Stepping into the Helix Jesse looked to Shalimar already seated with a look that would suggest she had no emotions for what had just happened. If he didn't know better he might have bought it.

"Shal, what are you talking about? Adam said Emma might not be thinking for herself," he reminded her hoping to spark some hope in the feral.

"Well there's nothing I can do about it now," she replied. "I just wanna go home."

Jesse sighed and sat himself at his controls helping prepare for take off.

The ride home was silent and the molecular wondered what he could say to his friend in a time like this to comfort her if there was even anything suitable.

"I don't think she's herself," he finally said. He looked over to the feral and noticed his words had almost no effect on her and she kept focused on her task. He turned back to the screen as they flew back into Sanctuary.

Shalimar was quick to exit the craft and made her way into the lab where Adam was waiting. He turned at the sound of a slamming noise to see an upset Shalimar standing over the counter. She looked down to the rings she'd just slammed down and Adam did the same letting a long breath escape him at the disappointing sight.

"Looks like it wasn't just me that got dumped," she said in a disapproving tone.

"I'm sorry for what happened, Shalimar," he offered.

"How do we fix it, Adam?" Jesse asked entering the lab.

"Well first things first we need to get Emma and Brennan back here but after what you told me that's going to be more difficult than we originally thought."

"What about Brennan's cell phone?" Jesse asked remembering the elemental had taken it with him today. "We could track his signal to find out where they are."

"Not gonna work," Shalimar interrupted.

"Why not?"

Shalimar lifted the cell phone from her coat pocket waving it slightly before setting it next to the abandoned comlinks on the counter.

"They left it in the car," she informed.

"So not only can we not find them but now we don't know what happened to them when they were attacked," Jesse stated instantly regretting it when he caught the look it provoked in Shalimar's eyes.

"Not necessarily," Adam said reaching out to Jesse's coat where drops of blood had caught his eye. "You said on the way here you were fighting Brennan and Emma. Is this their blood?"

Jesse turned his arm to look at the blood on the shoulder of his coat.

"Oh man I just had this thing dry cleaned too."

"Whose is it?" Adam asked again.

"Um, Brennan's," Jesse informed thinking back to the fight. "After he rushed beside me to grab Emma, Shalimar hit him and it must've splattered on me then."

"Well get it off and I'll see if I can run some tests," Adam informed.

"I think I'm gonna go lie down for a little," Shalimar said. "Come tell me when you know something ok."

"Sure thing," Adam agreed as Shalimar left the lab.

She headed down the hall remembering Lara was still in the kitchen and decided to go see her but as soon as the thought entered her mind she found the red head pushed up against her own body as she turned the corner.

"Shal, you're back," Lara said happily as she stepped back after colliding with the feral. "You ok?"

Shalimar sighed unsure of how to answer and unsure of why that was as well.

"I don't know. I have a killer headache."

"Come on let's get you comfortable," Lara said putting her arm around the feral's shoulder and walking her down the hall to her room.

Shalimar smiled and made her way into her room sitting herself on her bed with Lara's assistance. The presence of the red head seemed to make her forget about all her other problems and she almost forgot about Emma entirely. If it wasn't for the strong resemblance to Emma that Lara held Shalimar wouldn't have had the psionic cross her mind at all but soon enough she found herself only thinking of Lara.

Lara sat down beside the feral and gently rubbed her shoulder holding a friendly, comforting look.

"Do you wanna talk?" she asked her friend hoping she'd open up to her and let her help.

"I guess I should've seen this coming," Shalimar finally stated in a long sigh.

"No, Shal, this isn't your fault. Emma made her own decisions."

"No but it must be my fault. I told you about all the trouble we had just before we got engaged. Shortly after that I read something Emma had written about fate and how she wondered if all our hardships was fate trying to tell her something. I never told her I read it. She has a journal and after I read that paper I read her journal and found pages where she talked about having a crush on Brennan when we first became friends."

"It's not your fault if she decided to act on it and cheat on you, Shalimar."

"Well it might be," Shalimar added beating herself up inside.

"No," Lara's voice was sure and Shalimar looked up at the statement. "Don't blame yourself for Emma's mistakes."

Shalimar smiled and reached to her friend for a warm hug feeling all her doubt and pain slip away at the touch of the woman.

Jesse sighed and stood from his computer feeling fed up with trying to locate Emma and Brennan and coming up empty. He walked into the lab to find an anxious looking Adam searching a genetic code on the screen.

"Hey, Adam-"

"Jesse, I'm glad you're here. I've been doing some research on Brennan to see if he was in fact altered by those mutants who attacked him earlier."

"And?"

"Well it appears he isn't totally in a natural state right now. I think they sent him some kind of steroid."

"A steroid?" Jesse asked surprised at the diagnosis.

"Yes. My guess is it was a mental steroid of some kind but it has affected his body as well so I was able to pick it up."

"What does this steroid do to you?"

"I can't be sure exactly but based on the way he's been acting I'd say heightening his testosterone levels and in turn affecting the way he thinks."

"But would that make him fall in love with Emma?"

"No I don't think so."

"So what do I tell Shalimar? That Brennan really loves Emma?" Jesse asked knowing he didn't want to have to break that news to his best friend.

"Right now I think we should just tell her that yes Brennan has been altered by someone for some reason and that's the best we've got to go on."

Jesse sighed.

"What about Emma?"

"Without having her here in the advanced genetics lab I can't conclude anything about her behavior."

Jesse nodded and left the lab heading to Shalimar's room to tell her the news. He knocked on the door and softly called her name through the barrier but no answer came though. After knocking again Jesse turned the knob and opened the door thinking the feral was still resting after the long day she'd already been put through but was shocked to find her lying on top of Lara the two women half naked and the passion between them about ready to boil over.

Shalimar pulled her lips from the red heads and turned to Jesse as he stood shocked in her doorway.

"I'm sorry," he offered not knowing what else to say and closed the door before heading back down the hall to get back to work on his computer.

"Jesse," Shalimar's voice called to him from behind. "Jesse, wait up," she said as she caught up to him in the living room.

"What was that, Shal?" he asked not worried about butting in at all.

"That was me moving on."

"Shal, I know this isn't my business but you're my friend and I don't wanna see you make a mistake-"

"If you wanted to talk about mistakes you should've had that pep talk with Emma, Jesse, not me."

"Shal-"

"What were you coming to tell me?" Shalimar interrupted anxious not only to get the answer but also to get back to the woman she'd left hot and bothered on her bed.

Jesse sighed before allowing the subject to change.

"That Adam ran the tests on Brennan's blood and thinks he was giving some kind of behavior altering steroid but we need to bring Emma back here before we know about her."

"So was Brennan altered into loving Emma?"

Jesse paused unsure of whether or not to answer.

"Jesse?" she pushed again.

"Adam isn't sure," he finally said.

"Yeah," she replied in a half believing voice before turning to head back to her room. "Why don't you come get me when you've got some real information."

"So you're just gonna cheat on Emma?" he asked in shock at the feral's surprising actions.

The question made the feral turn around to face him and he could see how angry it had made her.

"Anything I do from now on isn't cheating, Jesse, since Emma and I are no longer together," she reminded. "And I don't see how me being with Lara constitutes as cheating on Mrs. Mulwray," she added before storming back off down the hall to her room.