See page 1 for disclaimer

Chapter Two

(Shalimar's House)

"Oh no, the house!" Joey cried, putting Kylie on the ground, "It's in flames. Call Karmen and get her to put it out!"

"Calm down Joey, she's somewhere near the house…just not inside." Emma told her sister in a calm voice.

Joey looked at Emma, "Well then, let's go find her!" Joey ran around to the back of the house, out of sight.

"Come on guys, Brennan wait here for Karmen…I just sent her a text message." Emma ran after Joey. Adam Kane, Jesse Kilmartin, and Lexa Pierce followed. Kylie looked up at Brennan Mulwray, and motioned for him to pick her up.

"Your mommy always seems to find trouble, even when you're around." Brennan said softly to Kylie as he lifted her up. Kylie rested her head against Brennan's shoulder and fell asleep in his arms like any other 3 year old would.

"So, in love with an infant are we?" an unexpected voice came from behind him.

"Karmen." Brennan said as he turned around.

"I'm 14 and ready to save this house." Karmen replied with her hands on her hips.

"Quick, Adam's already called the fire station and told them it was a false alarm." Brennan told her. Karmen put the fire out by controlling the element of water, and when she was finished and the fire was completely out she went back to headquarters.

A few minutes after Karmen left an S.U.V parked in front of the burned house. A man stepped out and walked up to Brennan.

"Is this your house?" the man asked, pointing towards the burned house.

"No, but a friend of mine lives here. 5 of us have gone to find her." Brennan told the man as he rubbed Kylie's back.

"You know where she is?" the man asked questionably.

"Yeah, so? Look she may be hurt and we're the only kind of people that can help her." Brennan replied quickly.

"Kind of people?" the man seemed to be confused.

"Never mind, it's not important. So, who are you?" Brennan said, changing the subject.

"Gil Grissom. I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. We got a call from a neighbour that the house was in flames. The call came in about 20 minutes ago. I'm assuming the fire men have already been here, since the flames are out." The man told Brennan.

"Yeah they got here before anyone else did." Brennan looked away. He hated lying, but he knew it was the only thing he could do to keep mutant identities safe.

"Hey Brennan! We found her. She only has a few broken ribs and a broken arm, any other damages will stay unknown until we do the tests." Joey explained as she ran towards Brennan.

"That's great Joey, but there's someone else behind you." Brennan said in reply.

Joey turned around slowly, "Oh, hi. Name's Josephina but I prefer the name Joey. Wow…I like your style! What is it, the new police trend?"

"Actually, I work at the Las Vegas Crime Lab, as a Supervisor…not a police officer." Grissom replied, "And speaking of that, here's part of my CSI team now." He looked at the road where three S.U.Vs were parked and Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, and Warrick Brown were walking towards him. Brennan and Joey turned to face them.

"Hey stranger," Nick said to Grissom, "Wow, I'm amazed this house survived a fire that bad."

"Nick, Warrick, Sara…meet Brennan and Joey." Grissom said after Nick made his comment, "We're going to need to speak to the owner of the house."

"She's right behind you." Shalimar said from behind him.

"Oh, hello. I never saw you come behind me." Grissom replied.

"Well I wouldn't expect you to. You were too busy talking to your friends that you didn't even notice the other four people too." Shalimar told him. Grissom, Warrick, Nick and Sara all looked around them and sure enough Adam, Lexa, Emma, and Jesse were standing there as well.

"Oh, I guess you're right." Grissom replied, letting out a little laugh after.

"So what do you need to ask me?" Shalimar asked as she limped over to her car. Brennan helped her open the passenger door so that she could sit down.

"Hi, I'm Sara Sidle. I just need to ask a few questions." Sara said, shaking Shalimar's hand.

"Shalimar Fox…ask away." Shalimar replied.

"Alright…" Sara began, "Can you tell me what happened?"

"There's nothing to tell." Shal said in a simple voice.

"Obviously there is…something created this fire." Sara told her, using a crude voice.

"You wouldn't believe me anyway." Shal said. By now, it was obvious that Sara was starting to get annoyed.

"Okay then…what was destroyed? Anything important?" Sara asked trying to stay calm.

"Yeah…the house was destroyed, but I thought that was quite obvious." Shalimar said, only glancing at Sara and then looking at the remains of her house.

"Okay, I can see this is getting no where…it's clear that you don't want to co-operate." Sara said annoyed, "Which is perfectly fine with me…after all it's your house destroyed, not mine."

As Sara walked away, Shalimar looked at Brennan.

"Why do you do that?" he asked her.

"Do what?" she replied.

"Be so rude to people who are only trying to help you?" he looked over to where Sara, Warrick, Nick and Grissom were getting into their S.U.Vs and driving away.

"Look Brennan, it's people like them who tried to ruin our kind once, and it's people like them who would do it again if they knew we still existed." Shal said to him.

"That's pretty harsh." Brennan replied.

"What can I say? The truth hurts." Shalimar said coldly as she stood up.

"Brennan! Drive Shal to headquarters…we'll do some tests there!" Adam said loudly from his car. Together Shalimar and Brennan watched as Adam, Lexa, Jesse, Emma, and Joey all drove away.

"Come on Shal, we'd better go now." Brennan said helping her get in the car. He put Kylie in her car seat and then got in the driver's seat.

Silently, they drove away.