Chapter 7

Brennen sat a little straighter and tried not to see the sorrow etched on his little sister's face. Call it a connection or call it intuition but Brennen knew what was coming.

"About four years ago, well actually on July 6 at 12:39 pm, I got a call from County Medical; you know the hospital mom worked at? And uh…well you see…" it had been so long and Faith still could manage to say the words. She also saw the look in her brother's eyes – the kind that chills you to the bones- he knew, and she knew, but neither could say it.

A long pause followed, the silence ringing in both of their ears until Brennen couldn't take it anymore. Opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, he finally managed to form the word "how?"

"Ah, well she had been transferred to the psych ward after you left, and one of the patients there got a knife somehow. She was giving him medicine for hallucinations and…it just got out of control. It got bad, the worst kind of bad, and the ugly. They rushed her to ER but he'd hit some kind of artery and she - well she didn't come home." Faith faltered.

Brennen reached up and wiped away the slow, trickling tear from his sister's cheek. Faith lets her head fall into Brennen's chest and is comforted by the sound of his heart and the feel of his arms around her. You couldn't fake a brother's hug, though she'd been trying for years.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to go through that alone, that I wasn't there for you." Brennen whispered softly into Faith's ear and kissed her hair.

"Hey, it's okay," Faith pulls out of her brother's embrace and looks up at him, "I've got you now. Plus that's what finally made me decide to leave. Mark and I hadn't been getting along but I couldn't leave mom. So I told him I needed to let you know, you deserved to know. Then there was a fight thing, but I left. I guess you could say mom brought us together again – and that was something I know she wanted." Faith smiled and hugged her brother tighter than normal.

"So, what do you say you teach me some moves, you know – how to kick some ass." Faith stands up and kicks the air for effect.

"What? Karate classes didn't work out for you?" Brennen laughs and breathes a sigh of relief – his sister was really here – everything would be okay now.

"Well yeah, but from what Jesse tells me you can like fly and stuff."

"Jesse, eh? Spending a lot of time with him – chaperoned I hope!" Brennen makes a stern face that just causes Faith to laugh. "And I can't teach you that, that's what my powers do."

"Yeah, well in case you forgot I've got powers too." Faith snaps her fingers a little flame shoots up. "But that's okay, if you don't think you could handle it, I'll just get Jesse to." And she bolts for the door before Brennen can work out the insult.

"What! I don't think so!" he shoots out the door running after her.

"Jesse, come look at this." Adam calls from the lab. "You've got the most scientific eye out of the group, what can you make of that?" Adam points to a DNA chart on the screen.

"I can't. That shouldn't be there. I don't even know what that is." Jesse leans in trying to get a better look but is still baffled by a strange spike in the readings. "What are you thinking?"

"Its mutant DNA, and it's in the advanced stages, but I've never seen that before, it's connecting the mutated strands to the human ones though." Adam turns away from the screen and closes his eyes.

"Well from what I can tell, this mutant is at least thirty years old since the mutation is so strong, maybe it's just something that comes with old age, like the power fuses with the body or something. It could be a reaction to something too, like the body trying to fix a disease using the strength of the power." Jesse brings up more charts and compares the original blood sample to some others on file.

"Well that's just it though, this didn't come from an older mutant, this came from a twenty year old. Mutation shouldn't begin until you around thirteen; this should be barely functioning right now." Adam spins around and looks at the charts. "I just can't figure it out. I'll run some more tests, see if your theory is right about the infection. Thanks." Adam busies himself with the computer screen once more.

"When you say twenty-year old, you wouldn't mean a certain black haired beauty in here would you?" Jesse looks out the door just as Faith and Brennen run by laughing.

"Black haired beauty?" Adam raises an eyebrow and Jesse blushes a little before shrugging. "If you mean Faith, then yes, this is her blood. Beauty – wow she got you fast."

"She didn't get me, I was just commenting….just don't tell Brennen okay, he'd flip if he knew I thought his sister was hot." Jesse pleaded with Adam.

"On one condition: don't mention this to anyone – especially Faith. I don't know what we're dealing with and I don't want people freaking out over this. It could be nothing…" Adam turned back to the screen and started to focus on the blood sample again.

Yeah, it could be nothing, or it could be something – and not the good kind of something. Jesse was leaning against the door frame watching Faith and Brennen wrestle around. She looks so happy, and I've never seen Brennen this relaxed before, these two have already been through so much. If something happened to Faith, I don't know what he'd do.

"Hey Blondie, come on, you gonna just watch or join in some fun?" Faith pulled Jesse into the mix just as Brennen grabbed Emma around the waist and started to carry her around like a trophy.

If something happened to Faith…I don't know what I'd do.