Control 23

Chapter 23- Jealous

When morning brought sunlight, it burst just over the tips of the trees, shinning its light into the room Brennan had been given.

His eyes flutter, seeming to be too heavy to lift. When they opened, Brennan tried not to imagine what he looked like. His whole body felt weak, and slightly numb. The news to him sent a small shiver of panic into his brain. Trying to remember what had happened last, he lent up on his elbows, taking in the room he was in. The movement sent small spikes of pain into his brain, but ignoring it, he noticed a white bed sheet draped over the lower part of his chest, revealing a bandage wrapped around his left shoulder. A brief flash of remembrance sent his whole body into a small fit of shivers, making him seem to be in a frozen position. And really... he was. He didn't want to move in case he should remember where the burning in his shoulder came from. But he had only become aware of the burning, when he had thought back to the even. Shaking his head, he lay back, trying to forget it.

His nightmare he so longed to forget flickered before his mind, comparing the two events. He tried to turn it away, not wanting to remember either because of there similarity. It vanished, and instantly, his muscles he was oblivious to tensing earlier, relaxed.

As he looked up at the pale blue ceiling, trying to fight back the heaviness of his eyelids, but they were persistent to close. He could feel his strength leaving him again, as sleep crawled under his defence.

A heavy knock hit the door, but it didn't seem to reach him, for he made no reaction to the loud noise. After a moment, the door cracked open, revealing an unknown face to him, but some how, it looked familiar. It was a man, as he realised looked too much like Nick, to not be a relation. He stepped further in, seeing Brennan awake. He treaded very softly on the carpet floor, leaving no room for noise. His voice, however, was very deep, almost fatherly. Brennan took a guess that the man may very well be Nicks father, since he looked it. The creases in his face said around early forties, while his eyes held the youth of Nick. He had a broad build to his shoulders, resembling Nick, but he wasn't as big as his Nick. He had the same brown secretive eyes, and wavering black to brown hair like all the others.

He drew closer, making Brennan tense and sit up expecting some thing from the man. When he saw this, he made sure to stay a few feet away from the bed, giving Brennan a smile.
"My names Andy... Andy Miller. Chris sent me up to see if you were awake... are you ok?"

After a while of considering if he was a threat Brennan took his chances. "I'm ok. Where's Adam?" Andy must have seen this as an invitation that Brennan was opening up, since he now stood him self to the bed, almost towering over Brennan. "He's checking Damien over for his injuries.

Once again, the weariness came into Brennan, tightening his shoulder, but he made sure to not let it show. "How did he get injured?" but some how, deep inside, Brennan felt the answer sweep his mind. His hands unknowingly clutched the bed sheets in a white-knuckle grip. His breathe held as he waited for the answer.

Andy raised an eyebrow, as if saying ' like you don't know' but lost it with a look at Brennan's sudden need that shone dimly in his eyes. "...The women who was travelling with you. She... was very defensive and believed Damien was the one who attacked you".

"And was he?" Brennan was having some suspicions as Andy had continued to talk, about the attack. Damien was a high rating when he was considering who could have attacked him. But Damien wasn't the only 'wolf' around the mansion. Even the man in front of him could transform into one, but yet... they had never had the struggle of control as he had observed when Adam had been questioning Chris about Damien. Damien was the most likely choice.

Andy seemed to have dropped the subject altogether, sitting naturally at the end of Brennan's bed. Brennan felt the tightness in his shoulders spread to his back, as he looked questioningly at Andy. 'What's he waiting for... for me to suddenly accept Damien wasn't the one?' Brennan felt his own jaw tighten at the thought.

Andy seemed lost in his head for a moment, before popping back into reality. Giving an embarrassed smile, he shuffled with his hands. "Do you want any of your clothes from the place you and your friends were staying with Adam. It seems Elayne tore your shirt when she was helping Adam stitch you back up, and you'll need clean clothes".

Brennan was now the one raising his eyebrow, and Andy seemed to read his mind, laughing embarrassed again. "Elayne is handy when there are wounds needed tending. But she doesn't have much medical experience as doctor Kane. She was a small time nurse, but dropped it when she decided to come live out here".

Brennan couldn't ignore the sudden feel to be defensive in front of Andy. Not when the tension in his shoulders and back was forming a layer of stone over him.

The door opened again, with out a knock, and in walked Elayne. She didn't look in a happy mood, as she strode over to the edge of Brennan's bed, looking down on the two of them with crossed arms.

Andy took one look, and jumped to his feet, as if she hadn't caught him doing some thing. But her gaze lingered on Brennan, looking questioningly up at her.
Her eyes were cool, but had a glint of anger to them. Before Brennan could even ask, she started to inspect his shoulder. She gripped it at the top, near his neck, and seeming satisfied he hadn't yelped, started to tug at his arm. When he only glared up at her, she stiffened her back, and pressed lightly on the bandaged area. Brennan bit his lip as pain erupted suddenly, like it had been dormant. A small bit of blood came through the bandage, making her searching eyes find their target.

Already she was unwrapping the bandage... and not gently. Brennan felt the wound being jolted about, and when his arm was free of the thing she had been ragging off his arm, pulled away, allowing the pain to subside.

Anger boiled under his skin, giving small sparks off his fingers. She was oblivious to the danger and reached for his arm again. Andy opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

The door rebounding off the wall pulled all their attention. Shalimar stormed in, her eyes half blazing half concerned for the wounded team member on the bed.

When she saw Elayne standing over Brennan, her stance at the end of Brennan's bed changed. It was relaxed but transformed into a hostile cross of her arms. Elayne let her eyes wander from her to Brennan, before finally she dropped the dirty bandage into the bin, and mutter to be back later.

Equal sighs emitted from the two men in the room, but still Shalimar hadn't removed out of her position. Andy saw the mood she was in, and gave Brennan a small smirk of sorry for the wounded man, before following Elayne's direction and closed the door behind him.

Brennan felt the tension waver the air around him. He couldn't help but stare at her. He almost wanted to smirk at the things she did... how he loved them, but he resisted. Smirking now might just ruin what friendship they held. It felt too crucial to have her close, just like if they parted, their close bond would lead them back.

She slowly came around, losing her defensive pose and sat on the edge of his bed. She was silent, while both of them searched for some topic to talk on. One kept bouncing into view, but was disposed of before the words could leave their mouths.

After a few moments of thinking, he sighed, inspecting his injured shoulder. Her eyes followed his hand, seeing the wound for the first time made her stomach half queasy half filled with molten lava. She couldn't prove it was Damien, but he was out side with them, so it had to be him. 'But half the others could have snuck out and no one would have known. I was to busy crying to even try to sense anything'. She started to scold herself in her mind for being so foolish.

Brennan gripped her hand that lay limply on her leg, and gave it a tight squeeze. "It wasn't your fault Shal..."

His knowing made her stomach sudden knot, as she tried to hide her eyes, when they told so visibly how she was feeling.

He smiled as he saw her trying to hide away behind her golden main. Giving her cheek a quick push up, he dropped his hand back, hoping she didn't notice the amount of strength it took him to do so.

"It wasn't. The odds of that happening are 100 to 1". Shalimar looked up, her eyes giving a sheen of hardness to her words. "How about around here. Around here them odds would be 5 to 1".
Brennan couldn't argue, heck the odds might just be closer than that. Sighing, he tried to sit up with out wincing. When he was upright, he could almost feel the colour in his face drain away, pulling his strength out with cups full. No matter how much he tried, he knew she would blame herself, since she had her jaw set and eyes locked on him.

She saw him wince once and resisted against her self to jump and help him. She didn't want to see the look of disappointment in his eyes. She knew he was strong, but he went to far and suffered too much. She gripped onto her trouser legs, trying not to strangle him because of his pride. He gave her a small devilish smile, and her heart skipped a beat. She didn't know how intently she was staring into his deep brown eyes that she suddenly felt her self-leaning forwards. Some one could drown in those eyes and be happy about it.

He didn't move, as she got closer, only waited. They stayed a few inches away, watching and waiting for some thing. When he stared into her again, she felt her body heat burst through her, exploding her pulse into a heavy drum.

She moved closer...

"You were Jealous!"

His voice startled her as much as the words, as confusion hit, shattering its mind from its cage of enclosed sponge around her mind. Her answer came too fast, faster than she wanted and instantly she felt her cheeks heat.

Arrogantly, she sat back with a stiff back, forcing the pink out of her face. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

His grin only made the pink turn to red, and deepen. Her cheeks almost hurt with the embarrassment she was feeling. Her jaw became solid once again, "Like I said Bren. I don't know what your talking about-" but she contradicted herself, "- any ways, you'd be jealous if I started prancing around and showing off in front all the men here". His grin dropped, bringing alive a small smirk to her lips. "I thought you would be".

Before he could fire the subject up any more, she rose off the corner of the bed, and moved over to his side table, where a range of creams and bandages were sitting. She picked any random cream, since they all read the same, she mentally made a note to check which doctor had prescribed that, and added a bandage to her collection and trailed lazily back to the other side of the bed.

Brennan sat up, weary due to her eyes as they searched the label of the cream, maybe to see if she made him swallow it, it wouldn't poison him. He gulped, already trying to scrape some black mail on her up to prevent his approaching torture.

Her eyes lifted with a small devilish spark to them, and his mind banished all thoughts of black mail and started to make up a plan to get out the door before she tried any thing.

She saw him eyeing the door, and her grin reappeared with the sparkle that lit her eyes. Unravelling the bandage slowly, she pretended to be intent on that one task, but secretly watched his reaction. Her past experiences had taught her well.
Allow some ones own imagination to think up worse things that she could possibly do and then watch as it picked and nagged at their brains until they eventually snapped or gave in.

He eyes the bandage as if it was a snake, unravelling and preparing to strike. His eyes started to jump from the bandage to the door. His eyes started to search for some fault in her face, to tell him she was just messing with him.

She finally unravelled the bandage and leaned towards him. His eyes closed instantly, as a small jolt ran through his veins, but he hoped she took it as him not wanting to see what she was gonna do. He felt a small bead of sweat trickled down the right side of his face... and it wasn't from Shalimar's tormenting. He started to feel really weak, and breathless. He just hoped Shalimar would get it over with so he could get some more rest.

Carefully, she waited, but he didn't give, so she moved the bandage to him. He closed his eyes, as a flash of what she thought was panic took him, but some thing nagged the back of her mind that there was more to what she was seeing.

Trying to forget it, she started to wrap his shoulder back up. She had smoothed some of the cream onto the bandage, just in the right place, as she replaced it back on his shoulder. His eyes slowly opened, sending serge of fear when she saw the effort it took. "Bren! Are you ok...-" fear started to take over as she rose up from her seat, leaning over him, "-I'll get Adam". He gave a small nod, but she half froze, finally seeing the amount of sweat he was cased in. It left sheen on his skin, an outer coating that clung his thin pants to him, and the sheets laying draped at the lower part of his chest. He was even panting slightly.

She was running at top speed as panic over came her brain. She felt her eyes suddenly come alive with there glorious golden sheen, and enhanced her body. Her speed picked up, as she blurred past random figures, but she didn't bother to see who they were. She had already reached out for Adam, and was heading in his direction.

10 minutes earlier

Adam had sat down once again in Chris's office in the last few hours. He'd already been there more than twice, but it still mesmerised him at the antics sitting in corners of the room, and in glass cupboards.

But he got down to the task at hand, since that was what ran through his brain as easily as blood was pumped through his veins. Getting comfy in the cushiony chair he was seated in wasn't hard, he leaned slightly forward, ready to direct all his ideas to Chris.

The other man sat idly in his seat, but his wavering eyes, and un-relaxed position spoke of his anxiety to know what Adam had found out.

"Now, Chris, I believe the problem with Damien is due to some thing in his blood stream. It's very small but blood travels all around the body. Now this small thing is what I'd call a similar version of a virus. The virus is continuing to remain in Damien's body because his body doesn't know how to fight it off. You know that Virus's can have all kinds of extraordinary affects on the body. This particular virus is some thing I've never come across. It sits in his blood stream, and soon starts to affect his body. Damien may have started changing because the virus is provoking his power. Now when Damien transforms, I should believe that in what I saw of him when he was transforming back when he was in the cage, he was having a rather big struggle. That struggle would pump his blood harder, awakening the virus. Damien would be mentally and physically affected by the virus that he could be considered uncontrollable, and dangerous in a transformed state".
When he finished, Chris sat there, letting all it sink in. His eyes were misty, as he remained to go over the troubles in his head. After a moment, he woke up. He shook his head as if to prevent him mind from moving on any further, "... can you fix it?"

Adam surveyed Chris, watching, as his earlier anxiety that he had barely showed, not sat in his chair, dissolving the cool and collected Chris.

Adam nodded, "Yes I believe so. I examined Shalimar's DNA with Damien's, and found that they both had the exact same virus. What puzzles me is how the virus got into both of them. After a while, it may have started to affect them in more serious way". The warning was unspoken, but Chris's eyes levelled with Adams, as he silently understood.

Silence stretched as Adam waited for some other reaction off Chris, but he was stroking his chin, eyes once again misty.
"So if you cure Shalimar, Damien can be cured... good. That is very good. But I believe I may have the answer how it got around". Adam sat back as Chris rose, pacing behind his desk as he explained.

"There are... others out in the world, who can also transform. Some of them, particularly one, Spencer Fields, had a grudge against Damien. He and Damien didn't get along all too well. He disappeared a few months ago. He must have gotten off the island and onto other land. He may have returned undetected and gotten the virus into Damien, but I have no idea how your team member may have came across with the virus".

Adam nodded; already the wheels in his mind were turning in motion to work it all out. Shalimar usually, no, frequently in the last month, had been visiting clubs in town.

He was still amazed that the virus took so long to actually come out into the open. But he needed to find a cure, for Shalimar and Damien's sake.

Hey guys. So how many of you love this story.

Sorry, got a bit big headed there.

Well, please reply and tell me what you think.

Also thank you for the other replies. Amazing words.

Thx for reading

Tunder28