A/N: Hi people! Thank you thank you thank you all soooooo much for reviewing for me! Thank you to: loveconquers (Yes, poor Jesse, you'll see his annoyance later in the chap. Oh yeah, and I hope you upload a new fic soon!), Lisa (I like cliffhangers :evil grin:), Mxfan214 (Thanx!), Golden Flither (aww, thank you! I appreciate that! I'm glad you like my fic!), Kiki-0400 (Don't stop reviewing! Look, look! I didn't take a month this time! Aren't you proud of me?), Marie Crosby (oo, don't have a heart attack, they're probably not at all fun), and whoever "Anonymous" is, thanks!

I really appreciate all of your reviews! Didn't I tell you that if you did so I'd update faster? Hmm? Didn't I? I'm writing more now that I'm out for summer and finals are over. I couldn't find time in May or June to write because of term papers and projects and all that jazz (haha, Chicago... - ). I really do appreciate all those of you who reviewed, or are just reading and haven't reviewed. Your support means so much to me! THANKS!

Disclaimer::grumble: yea yea... I know...

Chapter 8: Lost and Found Dying

Where? Where was he? Trapped? Buried? Unconscious? Hurt? …Dead? Jesse rapidly shook the last question from his mind and occupied the worrying half of his heart with searching for Brennan. His best friend. His brother. Lost somewhere in the wreckage of their misfortune. It had all been a setup. Somehow, their attacked had known about their meeting with the mutant girl and had set them up. But how? And why had they killed her? Mutant haters? Ones who wanted their kind to be wiped from the earth forever? Jesse didn't know, but he was damn sure that once his family was safe, he'd find out.

His family. His eyes flitted back to the writhing form of Lexa just feet away and the scarily still Shalimar merely inches from him. And Brennan. Somewhere around here his fallen comrade lay and Jesse knew that he couldn't be alright. If Shalimar was that badly hurt, Brennan couldn't be much better off. If he was alive at all. A tear snaked down Jesse's grimy cheek, which he brushed away, smudging the dirt more than it already was. No, he thought, I can't think that way. I can't believe he could die this way. No way. I mean, this is Brennan we're talking about. The biggest hardass I've ever known. No. No way. I'm gonna find him and we're all gonna be okay. Just keep looking, Jesse. You're going to find him.

Jesse took a deep breath and continued his search. They would all be alright. As soon as Brennan was found, he'd load them into the Helix, take them back to Sanctuary, heal them, and then they would figure out what the hell had happened here.

"Brennan!" Jesse called loudly, picking his way carefully though the fallout. "Brennan, can you hear me! Brennan!"

"Breeeeennn-," Jesse heard Shalimar whimper. He squeezed his eyes shut momentarily, then kept going. Don't worry Shal, I'm gettin' him.

Something shifted in the corner of his eye. Jesse's eyes shot to the movement, but it had stilled and he saw nothing. Jesse frowned and headed in that direction anyways. Something was better than nothing, right? His footfalls were barely heard as he tread cautiously forward. "Bren?" He called softly, hoping to hear or see something, anything that would lead him the right way. Another shift, a rustling of gravel and dust falling to the floor, Jesse's head snapped toward the sound. A tuft of black-grey dusted hair came suddenly into view as the lightweight dirt and stone fell from the uneven surface of his hair. "Brennan!" Jesse stumbled over to the hair and grabbed the layer of sheet metal that had hidden Brennan's battered body.

A crimson pool of blood lay beneath him and Jesse couldn't immediately identify the source. After a few second's search he discovered a chunk of jagged shrapnel protruding from Brennan's back. The piece was so large it stretched from shoulder blade to mid-back and bled heavily. Brennan, himself, lay face down, unmoving, left arm cut up pretty badly, a deep gash across his temple and from the top of his right eye, above his eyebrow, to his cheekbone below, only added to the pool. Unable to turn him over, Jesse stretched two fingers to his neck to search for a pulse.

Upon finding one, weak as it was, Jesse sighed in relief and began to think of ways to transport his injured friends without killing them. Brennan especially. Jesse had no way of knowing how deeply the shrapnel was imbedded or how much internal damage had been done. Lexa would be okay. Her injuries were minimal next to Shal's or Brennan's. The latter two undoubtedly had internal damage, most likely bleeding. If he didn't get them back to Sanctuary soon, Brennan, at the very least, was dead.

"Bren?" Jesse touched his shoulder gently. He got no response. "Brennan? If you can hear me, gimme some kind of sign. Please, Bren." Several long seconds of nothing before the corners of Brennan's eyes and his forehead wrinkled into a pained frown. Jesse exhaled hard, letting loose the hair he'd been holding. "Okay…okay…Hang in there Brennan. Don't you dare die on me. Shalimar would so kick my ass if I let you die. Don't move…not that that'll be a problem for you right now… I'm gonna get Lex and Shal into the Helix and I'll be back for you. So just hold on, okay?"

"Shal," Came the barely audible breath.

"Glad to see you heard something I said." Jesse grumbled, groaning as he, once again, got to his feet, tired and battered body protesting his every move. He went back to Lexa and gently, carefully, lifted her into his arms. She whimpered and clutched at his shirt as he carried her to the cloaked Helix. He settled her on one of the beds and went back for Shalimar, carrying her with extraordinary caution, caution that a glass-blower would marvel at. Next came Brennan. This posed a problem for Jesse. Brennan was bigger, heavier, and badly hurt. Jesse had absolutely no idea how he would get his fallen comrade into the Helix before the cops showed up to investigate the explosion. In fact, he could already hear the sirens in the distance.

Jesse blew out an exasperated breath. "What to do…what to do…" He murmured. "Of course you all choose to get hurt at the same time, obviously leaving me to deal with this all by myself. Isn't that just so very convenient? Look, there's Jesse, let's make him do all the work…" As he grumbled, Jesse picked out a fairly flat sheet of thin metal and carefully slid Brennan onto it. He grunted and sweated as he dragged the slab out to the Helix. The whole process took less than five minutes, including heaving Brennan over the uneven ground, but to Jesse's tired arms, it seemed to take an eternity. "God Bren, you've gotta lose some weight," he huffed as he hooked Brennan up to a vitals monitor and ran back to grab the dead girl's body. Shalimar would want her to get a proper burial.

Jesse raced back to the plane, sank into the seat behind the Helix's controls and lifted the craft into the air. Less than a minute later, the police arrived, searching the rubble for bodies. Of course, they would find none, and would write the explosion off as a gas leak or something. Because, of course, they would find no evidence of explosives or foul play. And the blood? Well, that had already been taken care of. But by who or what? A nifty new creation that their attacker had invented that veiled things that she didn't want to be seen. Especially blood and bodies. Now isn't that convenient?

Jesse glared down at what was left of the warehouse with disgust and slammed the Helix around and back toward Sanctuary. Brennan's vitals were dropping rapidly. If he couldn't get him back to lab in time, Brennan was a dead man. He couldn't pull the metal from his back without proper medical equipment present to stop the bleeding, he could check for internal damage without his computers. Without Sanctuary's lab equipment, it was all over for his team mate, his friend, his brother. How could he live with himself if her let Brennan die? How could he forgive himself? Shalimar would hate him forever. Or worse, she would blame herself for his injuries. Jesse couldn't let that happen. There was no way in hell he would let Brennan die.

TO BE CONTINUED...

READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! THANKS!