"So what would you do? Go off and find another woman altogether?" Jesse looked down at the floor for a moment. "If you had been forced to choose between Shal and Em what would you have done?"

"I never explored my feelings for Emma. Shal and I both felt a spark between us; and all that I saw indicated that Em liked either you or Adam. I wasn't about to cause that kind of trouble."

"It's a what if question. What would you have done if you had explored your feelings for both of them and if you had been put in a position to choose between them?"

"We both know that I want to say that I would have chosen Shal, but I have to be honest and say that I probably would have run as far away from the problem as I possibly could have at top speed."

"Some how I doubt that. You managed to know which was the clone and which was the real Shal that time at the club."

Flash back.

Brennan sat in the hot tub looking Shalimar who was sitting near him on a low chair. "Do you have any idea where they may have taken Lexa?"

Shalimar got up and kneeled down beside him. "I don't know. I only left her alone for a minute. But this place goes on forever, she could be in any one of these rooms."

Brennan nodded, continuing to stare at Shalimar.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.

"Like what?"

"Like you don't even know me. Brennan, I'm not the enemy here." she glanced towards the door. "There's one more thing I have to tell you. You're about to die!" she shoved him under the water, revealing that she was the a clone.

Brennan struggled, trying to come up for air.

'Brennan!' Jesse called over the com link 'Brennan! They're on to us!'

Brennan managed to struggle up for a breath, but was immediately pushed back under by the Shalimar clone.

'Sebastian's been popping off clones of the girls.' Jesse explained. 'Gia, Lexa, they're all synthetics. I have no idea how to pull the plug on them."

Brennan continued to struggle with the clone of Shalimar.

'Wait, Nano-technology is based on bioelectronics, which means that,' Jesse broke off.

'Let him go!" Shalimar called as she walked into the room where her clone was trying to drown Brennan.

The clone looked at her for a moment and then got up, allowing Brennan to resurface.

Shalimar pushed back a lock of her hair. "Shame to mess up that pretty face."

"What's a girl to do?" the clone asked and took a kick at Shalimar.

The two engaged in hand to hand combat, swapping places back and forth so many times that Brennan could no longer keep up with who was who.

Brennan got out of the hot tub and started to dry off.

'Brennan' Jesse called over the com.

'Jesse." Brennan answered

"Finally figured out the off switch. Since these guys are based on Nano- technology the only way to…"

"Just cut to it.' Brennan interrupted.

"Electricity. You could be the key, Sparky."

"I'm soaking wet."

"Well, you'd better dry your ass off fast."

Brennan dried off as quickly as possible while the clone and the real Shalimar fought.

"Shalimar!" Brennan yelled. He formed a telsa coil, and then stopped, realizing that he was not sure who was who

"Brennan, get her, it's me!" Shalimar called.

"She's lying!" the clone yelled!

"Brennan, do it now!"

Brennan stared at both of them.

The Shalimar clone started to attack Shalimar again, but Brennan shot her with electricity, and she melted.

Brennan blew out a breath.

"How did you know it was me?" Shalimar asked.

Brennan, smiled as he walked towards her: "I figured I had a 50/50 chance."

Shalimar stared at him, looking offended.

Brennan laughed "Oh come on, I'm not going to get you confused with some cheap imitation? What are you talking about?"

End of flashback

"Choosing between the real Shal and the fake Shal was just a matter of knowing her. It was just a clone of a woman, and the clone was essentially the same. It is the idea of choosing between two unique women that you are asking me to consider."

"I risked absolutely everything I had back then so Li and I could be together. I was ready to give up my entire life for her and I never had a second thought about doing it."

"She's not what I expected for you. Lexa has always been forward and abrupt, but this one is an extreme. I was really expecting some quiet, well mannered girl; not the little firecracker that I met today."

"Li was the most forward, demanding, and 'wild' woman that I ever met. She made me do all sorts of things that I never would have thought to do. Sometimes I wondered how I managed to survive being in a relationship with her."

"I don't understand how you managed to survive being with Lexa. She's never been an easy person to get along with. I thought that she was going to kill you after a couple of the fights that you two had."

"Some of those fights did get pretty rough." Jesse laughed. "She always wanted to get me to see her point, and she was pretty loud until she finally managed to get me to agree with her."

"There were a few times where you had to make her see your point."

Flashback.

Lexa was packing her things when Jesse walked in.

"Running away is not going to make things any better." Jesse stated flatly.

"No? Well I wouldn't have to put up with people getting involved in my affairs."

"Lexa working as a mercenary before didn't make you happy did it? It's not going to get any better now if you go back to it. But I know that there's been times here when you've been one o us, and that has made you happy."

"This is not what I want, Jess. I don't belong here, OK?"

"So where do you belong." He looked at her for a minute and then turned and walked out.

LATER THAT DAY

"Do you know where Richards is delivering the report?" Shalimar asked over the com-link.

"Uh, the federal building on Fairmount." Jesse answered. "Why?"

"Something's going to happen to Richards and we're going to need all hands on deck." Brennan explained over the com-link. "So you guys can make it there in an hour?"

"We're on the move." Jess answered as he shut off the computer and started to leave.

"I'm not coming with you." Lexa announced.

Jesse turned back to her. "What?" he walked back over to her and threw his hands up into the air. "What!"

"We're different, Jess." She answered, trying not to cry. "You know when I was a kid the only think I ever thought about was taking care of my brother. Everything I did for Eckhart, Adam, the Dominion; it was all about saving Leo, and I screwed it up."

Jesse shook his head.

"I didn't save anything." Lexa pressed.

"You did what you could." Jesse answered calmly, trying to reassure her.

"And I failed. You don't need me. I mean the last person that counted on me ended up dead."

"Is that what this is about? Are you worried about us?"

"No, I don't know how I feel. I just know that I need to get away and figure this out."

"Look when I first came here I was messed up too. The last thing I thought I wanted was to join a bunch of freaks in a cave, but, Lexa, once I was in I found something I could never fid on the outside. For the first time in my life I fit in. you're a part of that now."

Lexa nodded, thinking. "You need to go."

Jesse stared at her for a moment longer and then left.

Later

Brennan kneeled down by Eddie, checking on the man.

"Brennan!" Shalimar called as the human virus jumped over the desk to kill Brennan.

Before anyone had time to react Lexa came into the rum and shot the human virus with laser lights. She took a couple of deep breaths and then looked at Jesse and Shal 'Sorry I'm late."

Jesse smiled slightly and nodded.

End of flashback

"Making her see my point wasn't always that bad. She and I managed to find a few things that we could agree on with out either of us getting upset. I think that sometimes she argued with me just for some fun."

"I can see Lexa doing something like that. I guess that you aren't really going to be making a decision based on what Shal and I think. You are going to have to make the decision based off what you really feel. I'll drive Lexa to where ever she wants to go so you and Li can have sometime to talk."

"I've been trying to have Lexa around while Li and I talk. There are reasons about why Madeline left that I don't know yet, and I'd rather have Lexa here with me when I found out whatever it is that Li is hiding."

"Once you find out the truth about Madeline it might make your decision easier, and you don't have to have the wedding tomorrow. I'm sure that everyone would understand if you chose to wait for a while."

"I can't do that. If I postponed the wedding now I'd never be able to make a decision. By the time I finally managed to decide on anything the baby would have graduated from college with a doctorate. It's better if I go ahead and make my decision."

"Jess, you are getting to be almost as stubborn as I was. The decision about what you want to do here is not going to be easy. Whatever you decide to do is going to affect you for the rest of you life. Even I wouldn't make a decision like this in just a few hours. I'd have to take at least several days to decide."

"That is the difference between you and me. I'm ready to get this over with. I want to be able to put all this insanity behind me as soon as I possibly can."

"If the choice was going to be that easy you would have already made it." Brennan stood up. "I'm going to the kitchen. I left with out eating and it smells like one of those women can cook."

"Madeline." Jesse smiled slightly. "She has always been an exceptionally great cook."

"That's definitely a point to consider in this decision. It is always good to have a woman who can cook for you." Brennan joked as he left the room.

Jesse got up and went to his room. From the top shelf of his closet he pulled out a cardboard box. He gently lifted the lid and pulled out the photo album that was on top. His fingers ran over the gold script that read 'Our Wedding' before he opened it.

Madeline's brilliant smile looked up at him from the first page. Her long red hair was twisted up in a bun and held with a diamond-studded barrette. The neckline of her dress scooped low and was embellished with soft lace. Her eyes were warm with love and adoration.

Jesse turned the page to two pictures of himself with Madeline. In the first picture they were facing each other with their hands clasped together. The second picture had Madeline standing in front of Jesse and his arms wrapped tight around her waist.

Jesse closed the album, unable to look any further. Every page showed either his and Madeline's love for each other or Adam's disapproval of the marriage. He carefully set the album down and picked up two matching wooden necklaces that each had raised script style writing. One read 'Madeline' and the other 'Blake.'

Flash back

Twelve and a half years earlier.

Madeline stood in a store in the mall looking over the name necklaces. She had already found her name, but was unable to find Jesse's.

"May I help you with something, ma'am?" a sales clerk asked as she walked up to Madeline.

"I'm trying to find my boyfriend's name on one of these necklaces." Madeline glanced over to where Jesse was looking for the tiara that Madeline wanted. "His name is Jesse."

"We sold out of that one yesterday." The girl smiled. "You could check back later when we get a new shipment it. It should only be a week or two."

Madeline frowned and looked over the necklaces again. She smiled at one that caught her attention. "It's alright. I can get one with his middle name instead." She picked up the necklace. "Thank you though."

Ten minutes later.

Jesse and Madeline left the store, heading back out to their car.

"I'm sorry that they didn't have your tiara." Jesse said as he pulled her close to him. "We'll find it."

"Don't worry, the trip wasn't a complete bust. I got you a present, Blake." She pulled the necklace out of her shopping bag. "They didn't have your first name, but they did have your middle name."

Jesse kissed the top of her head. "You know that I love you, don't you?"

"Of course I do, but put on your necklace." She stopped walking and put the necklace over his head. "You look good."

"I suppose that you are going to insist on calling me by my middle name now." Jesse sighed.

"Maybe." Madeline smiled. "Do we have time for sex before you have to go back to Sanctuary?"

"I've actually got a bit of a surprise for you too." Jesse smiled. "I told Adam that I was taking you to a play tonight. I though that you might enjoy buying a new dress and then getting the full hair, make-up and nail jobs done."

"You are absolutely amazing!" Madeline kissed him and tightly squeezed his hand. "I love you so much!"

"And I thought that you might not like the present. I'll take you to the dress shop so you can get whatever you want and then we'll go to the spa. I can read through some newspapers while they get you all dolled up, and then we can go to our favorite restaurant and then on to the play." He stopped at the car and then opened Madeline's door for her. "And what we do after the play is up to you. I'll just be along for the ride for the rest of the night and you'll get to call all of the shots."

"Well I hope that you are up for some fun because I just bought a new Redbook that has a whole bunch of new tricks that I want to try out on you. I just hope that you are flexible enough for them."

"I'm up for anything that you want to try as long as it doesn't involve either of us getting hurt. I don't want to have to explain anything to Adam."

"It would be very difficult to explain something." Madeline laughed and leaned back in her seat. "I don't know how you manage to explain away all these dates and rendezvous that we have."

"Adam still thinks that I'm doing this just to keep you from getting bored. He also things that it throws people off by making it look like you are involved in a relationship. Every now and then he has even suggested that I spend the night at your place."

"Well that explains why you turn up on my door step sometimes. Of course Adam probably has no clue that we are involved in real relationship and that he is just assisting us." She reached over and took Jesse's hand. "I think that we may be able to work this to our advantage."

"You always seem to find away to make things work to our advantage. It think that you could make an alien invasion work to our advantage if you really wanted to."

"Well, we all have to be good at something." Madeline laughed. "Now. What is the budget on my dress for tonight?"

"No real set limit, just try not to go too crazy. Adam is writing it off as a business expense so you'll have something to wear if he ever needs us to go under cover at any formal dress advents. You've managed to impress him with your work on our little missions that we've gone out on; and I think that he is getting ready to move you up."

"I mussed have really impressed him if he wants to allow me to do anything more than recon with you. He's always seemed so uptight about the team. He worries about all sorts of things al the time, and it really makes me crazy! The man needs to loosen up a little and have some fun."

"Adam is not very much into fun. He'd rather work in his office or lab than go out clubbing or on a date. There are times when I wonder about his past."

"What do you mean?" Madeline raised an eyebrow.

"Just things about how he was treated when he was a kid. I guess it would be things like what kind of grade we he expected to make? Did he spend so much time with the books that he never learned how to party, or did he get partied out when he was young? I've never spent anytime around Adam when he wasn't working so I've never gotten the opportunity to find out much more about him."

"I'm sure that you will eventually get to find out about his past. Things will change and there will be a situation that requires him to tell you the truth. We all have our secrets, Blake; but we never get to keep all of them forever."

End of flashback

Jesse carefully put the necklaces back into the box and picked up his wedding ring. The gold shimmered in the light, only slightly dulled by time. He slowly rolled it between his fingers and the slipped it on the ring finger of his left hand.

"You have a lot of memories about her, don't you?" Lexa asked from the doorway. She slowly walked over to the bed, sat down, and picked up the photo album. "You were really happy with her back then."

"Lexa, don't do anything stupid just because of those pictures. You can ask Shal about those days and she'll tell you that I was not all that happy. Madeline seemed to have some kind of hold on me. I was never happy back then. I was content and I enjoyed my relationship with Madeline, but never really happy."

"Are you happy with our relationship?" Lexa asked coolly.

"Extremely.' he cupped her chin in his hand and kissed her softly. "This is not a question about how happy I am with either of you. This question is about what direction I'm going to take in live. You have been a wonderful part of my love, and I love you. I don't want you to doubt my love for a second."

"You are never going to be able to understand what I am feeling right now. I love you so much, Jess; but right now I am really beginning to doubt how you feel about me. If you really loved me as much as you claim to do this would be an easy choice for you to make." she closed her eyes trying to hold back her tears.

Jesse wiped away her tears, kissed both of her eyelids, and pulled her into his arms. "I want to be able to say that there is no real question here. I want to be able to say that I know what I want to do, but there is no way for me to do that right now. I love Madeline in a different way than I love you. She and I were just an arrangement when we got involved with each other. You and I have spent a long time together, working to get to a point where we could get married."

Lexa wrapped her arms around him and held him close as she cried. "I don't want to loose you. I don't want to loose the stupid fights we have, our endless chess games, our nights of amazing sex, and all the other things that have made us who we are as a couple."

"I know." He rubbed her back gently. "I know that you don't want to give up on our relationship, and you have to believe that I don't want to give up on our relationship either"

"Please make her leave. Tell her that she ruined it and that you don't want to give up your life for her. Tell her that you are happy with me and that she needs to move on with her life."

"Lexa, don't make this any more difficult than it already is."

She pushed back from him and wiped at her eyes. "You are really going to consider going back to her. I thought that this was just some sort of shock effect. I didn't think that you would actually be considering a break up with me to get back with her again."

"She was my wife. How could I not be thinking about getting back with her?" He stopped when he saw Lexa start to cry again. "I'm not saying that she's on the winning side. To be perfectly honest, you are going to be a stronger pull for be because we have spent so much time together."

"Then why do you even have to consider her? I love you, Jess. I would never let anything come between us. She let something pull her away from you. The only thing that will ever pull me away from you is death, and that is only after a long, hard fight. I can't understand why you'd want to be with someone who doesn't put you as the most important part of their life."

"Lexa, for all we know she was a part of some project that wanted to preserve human life and save the world from imminent destruction. Madeline was deep into the government, that is why Adam chose her. She was so deep into the government that none of us really knew that much about exactly what she did. For all we knew she could have been the president's personal secret informant."

"That is what makes it hard for me to believe that you want to get back with her. You always preached to me about not with holding information. You said that it was important for me to be honest with you."

"You are going to have a hard time believing this, but Madeline is the reason I always wanted you to be honest. I couldn't stand the thought of getting involved with someone who was going to hide the truth from me. I went through that enough while I was with Li."

"You know that I'm going to be honest with you. I've pr oven to you that I will be honest. She's lied to you, she's even lied to you about her death. I don't care why she did it, Jess. All that matters is that she did lie to you."

"Lexa, I don't want to have to make this choice. I don't want to have to face the fact that both you and Madeline have kept secrets from me or that you both have your own faults. I know that there have been things that you've kept from me because they are too painful for you to talk about, and that some of them could be flat out dangerous for me to know. I've never pushed you to tell me those things. You have to understand that some of Li's secrets are important to national security, and yet again she probably knows some things that would put me in danger if I knew them."

"You are so calm and cool about this that it is infuriating. I wish that you could hurry up and make a decision about what you want to do. I don't like having that woman in my home, trying to break up my relationship with you."

"I'm sorry that you don't like it." Madeline said from the doorway where she stood with her arms crossed over her chest. "I really hate to tell you this, but he's technically still mine. If anyone is trying to break someone up, it is you trying to ruin my marriage."

"You must excuse me." Lexa said as she got up. "I need to go buy a few things for my wedding night, and I must also spend sometime at the spa getting a manicure and a pedicure. I want to look perfect in my wedding dress." she walked to the door and locked her eyes onto Madeline's.

Madeline stood defiantly in place, refusing to move a single inch. She held Lexa's stare for a few seconds and then finally stepped aside to let the other woman by. "How on you do you manage to stand her, Blake? She's impossibly bratty."

"I'm pretty sure that she thinks the same thing about you." Jesse took off the wedding band and put it back in the box along with the other things. "Why did you do it? Was I not good enough to you? Was I just a job? What made you fake your own death and disappear the way that you did?"

"I love you to death, Blake. Nothing was going to change that. You knew what I did for a living when you chose to get involved with me. I'm sorry that my job ruined our marriage. You have no idea of how much I wanted to stay with you and have us make a life together."

"You never let anyone push you around or get in the way of what you wanted. Whatever made you leave must have been a matter of national importance or a danger to yourself or the team. I want you to sit down and tell me what it was that made you leave me."

"Jess, you are not going to like some of the things that I am going to have to tell you if I explain why I did what I did. I feel horrible about what i did to you by disappearing for the last twelve years."

"Li, you are going to have to understand that I've changed. What I went through with you and with loosing you changed me a lot. I don't put up with secrets the way I used to. Right now all I want from you is a flat out honest answer."

"Alright." Madeline agreed as she sat down on the bed beside him. "It started on our wedding night while I was getting ready to go to you..."