Till Death Do Us Part

by bohemianbabe

Just before he is to marry Lexa, Jesse's past comes back to haunt him. Can he deal with the truths that he is about to learn, or will it be over with for Jesse and Lexa.

6. First Nation

Till Death Do Us Part

By Martana Alexander

Chap 6

"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..."

Flash back

Twelve years before

The Night of Jesse's and Madeline's wedding, at the hotel.

Madeline stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom carefully brushing her hair. her eyes slowly scanned her reflection, carefully examining the light pink lace that barely covered any of her body. She glanced down at the slim gold band on her left hand and shivered with excitement. She carefully slipped gloss over her lips and turned to go. Just as her hand was on the door knob, her cell phone rang.

"Hello." Madeline whispered when she answered it.

'Miss Hart, or should I say, Mrs. Kilmartin, First Nation needs your help again.' the man on the other end answered. "I hope that you are prepared to take on this job."

"Agent Williams, I am trying to enjoy my wedding night." Madeline hissed. "I couldn't care less about what First Nation needs me to do right now."

"Your sex life is none of our concern, Miss Hart. We both know that the main reason you were assigned there was to find out what Dr. Kane is working on. This fling with Mr. Kilmartin has not only distracted you from your goal, but it has also caused you to be cut off from your objector. Unless you can prove that you are still use full there your job will change."

"Fine, I'll figure out something. Now if you don't mind, my husband is waiting for me to go to him so we can consummate our marriage." she ended the call and turned off the phone before she put it away. she quickly glanced in the mirror, making sure that the little bit of lace that covered her breasts and her skimpy underwear was in place. She opened the door just enough to reach inside the bedroom and turned off the lights.

"What are you doing, Li?" Jesse asked curiously.

"You just lay back and let me work this for you." Madeline laughed as she made her way to the bed. "I hope that you are ready for tonight." she slipped into he bed and curled up close to him.

The Next Morning

Madeline frowned as she woke up in bed alone. She glanced over to the small table where Jesse had put his lap top and rolled her eyes when she was that he was working at the computer. "We are spending one day together like this before we have to settle into our little house, and if you spend it alt he computer I will kill you."

"Don't worry. Li. I'll be back in bed with you in just a minute. I just wanted to check on something quickly."

Madeline gave him a soft smile and sighed. "He's not going to change his mind about this and ask you to go back. Adam made his final decision about our marriage. I was surprised that he even came to the wedding."

"I realize that you don't like him, but he has been my mentor for the last year. I wanted him to be happy with this. I even thought that we could make it into a big production of make making our marriage out as the perfect way to keep our best informant near."

Madeline slipped out of the bed, walked over to Jesse, and put her hands on his face; drawing his gaze up to meet hers. "I love you, Jesse, and I know that this is going to be a hard adjustment for you. You have to understand that Adam is making a choice to deny us his approval of our marriage. If he doesn't want to be a significant part of our lives that is his choice."

"I know, Li. I just don't understand what he is thinking. I thought that I had played all of the cards right. I am the only computer expert that he really has, and I thought that he would realize that I am important to the team."

"You are going to get a great job and do so many wonderful things that Adam is going to kick himself for ever letting you go." she softly kissed him. "You told me that my love would be enough for you. If it isn't tell me now and I'll get the marriage annulled and let you go back to Mutant X. I don't ever want to be the reason that you are unhappy or be the reason that you don't follow your dreams."

"No." Jesse shook his head. "You are the only thing that I really need, and we will find a way to make Adam repent for making me drop out of Mutant X. If he doesn't think that I'm good enough for him now that I'm married I am not going to worry about it."

"Good." Madeline smiled. "Now, let's enjoy our little mini-honeymoon while we can. We have to move into that house tomorrow since Adam has decided to order me to evacuate my apartment now that you and I are both out of the team."

"Are you sure that you are OK with us starting out in that small house? I don't want you to be bothered by anything."

"I love our house. It is going to be absolutely perfect once we get everything moved in." she stepped backwards and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I wouldn't want to have to set up house keeping in a mansion for my first real stab at it. Our little 'starter cottage' will be absolutely perfect for us."

"Just as long as you are happy with it." Jesse turned off the lap top and pushed his chair away from the table. "I guess that we might as well spend the rest of the day together."

"Are you kidding me!" Madeline laughed. "We are going to be spending the rest of our lives together. Till death do us part, Mr. Kilmartin."

"It is a good thing that we seem to like each other then." Jesse answered as he laid down in the bed and pulled Madeline to him.

Madeline settled into his arms with her head on his chest. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of his heartbeat for a moment before she spoke. "Are you OK with the fact that I'm going to be back at work with the government?"

"I guess. I know that it will take me a while to get used to the idea that I can't ask you too much about your day, but I guess that I'll deal with it."

"At least my superiors know about our relationship. We won't have to hide it from them , even if we do have to deal with the interruptions at bad times still."

"I will deal with whatever this new life throws at us. You know that I love you enough to give you the world so don't worry about your work. You did say that you were going to try to find me a job working in the Bureau."

"I know that I did, and I am going to. I should warn you that we probably wouldn't be working in the same group or department. I am a part of a group in the Bureau that receives some very high profile cases, and no one in my group has spent less than five years in the Bureau. No one except me , and I only got in early because my father leads the group. Even with your extensive training in recon and covert ops, he is not going to consider pulling you into our group. Not until he is absolutely sure that he can trust you.."

End of Flashback

"It really did all start out with that phone call I got on our wedding night." Madeline gave him a soft smile. "First Nation wanted me to change my assignment, and I wanted to stay with you."

"Who is this 'First Nation'? I've never heard of any group by that name." Jesse stared into her eyes. "And how powerful are they? I know that they must be pretty powerful if they managed to get you to change your mind and go back to them."

"I should warn you that I am about to turn your whole world upside down." Madeline turned extremely serious. "Once you know the truth about First Nation everything that you believe will be changed."

'I can handle it, Li. I've heard and seen things that most people think are impossible. I'm pretty sure that you're little group can't do anything too dangerous to my state of mind."

"Alright, Blake, let's see what you are made of then." she gave him a coy smile. "I want you to think about every little thing that you know about the world's politics. Every world leader, every system of government, every law that you can think of. Now I want you to forget that they even exist, because they don't."

"Alright, the whole collection of systems across the world is a lie." Jesse raised an eyebrow. "How do you fit into all of this?"

"Everything that you see in the world's governments is a lie. England has no king or queen, Canada has no prime minister, and the U.S. of A. has no president. All of these people are just pawns in a much bigger game. They are the fronts that the countries of the world put up to throw people off of what the truth is. We have one government for the entire world, and government is First Nation."

"Do you not realize how crazy you sound right now? If there really is some one world government why are there wars and all of these other problems? The world itself shows a complete contradiction to everything that you are telling me right now."

"I know." Madeline sighed. "It is really a very complex issue, and I will try my best to explain it to you. Not only are the forms of government that you see out in the world just a front, they also think that they are real. First Nation rules the world, and anything that our mock governments don't do right we go in and fix. As for the wars, well the governments were real enough for a long time and First Nation was not always in power. We've existed since the time of Christ, various government officials from each country or empire. We helped to prevent many wars that would have started, but we were never really in power until the end of World War Two. At that point it was realized that if we wanted to be an effective organization, we would have to truly take over power from all governments in the world."

"Alright." Jesse agreed. "I'll go with you on this. I guess that all of those conspiracy theorists have to have a reason for believing what they do."

"Yes, they do." Madeline smiled softly. "So World War Two was when we really got started. Hitler was a major part of the decision to take over. He had slaughtered millions of innocent, and if our agents hadn't stepped in to prevent certain things from happening, he would have succeeded in eradicating the world of Jews and taking over power of the entire world."

"So First Nation just decided to beat him to it."

"We did what we felt was in the best interest of the world." Madeline cleared her throat. "Of course there were several kings that we had to work out. How were we going to be more offensive with out being out in the open? Where would we be based from? Where would our funding come from? The list goes on and on."

"But you obviously managed to find a solution for each of your problems."

"Yes we did." Madeline smiled slightly. "It was a struggle, but we managed to solve all of our problems and get our base set up. We chose to build a base in Arizona in the area that is known as Area 51. Our base is underground where no one can find it. Only those who know the exact location can get in. We went on the offensive, but stay in the background by using coercion and putting some of our agents into governmental offices."

"So Area 51 really does exist." Jesse shook his head. "That is amazing. I think that would be every sci-fi geek's wet dream."

"Don't get any ideas of telling anyone what I'm telling you." Madeline warned. "No one can ever know any of this. Not Brennan, not Shal, and especially not Lexa."

"Come on, Li. I'm not stupid enough to even think about spilling a secret like that."

"Look, I shouldn't even be telling you any of this, but I am. I want you to know exactly why I did all of those horrible things to you." she paused for a second. "Once we decided on a place to have our base, we encountered the problem of getting enough funding to run it. All it really took was flashing around a few 'alien' items to the right people in our separate governments and the money began to pour into us from each of them. None of them had the slightest clue of what we were really doing. We also used different media such as music and television to implant suggestion into people's minds. If we wanted them to think one way we just used the implied suggestion that we sent through television signals. It is a very complex thing to explain, but essentially we used a from of mind control to keep the world in check." she hung her head slightly. "We even used it on you. It was important that you felt that you could trust me, so we sent messages to you. Eventually you began to trust me on your own and the suggestions were no longer needed."

"And what about my feelings for you!" Jesse demanded. "Was that a part of your great ploy too?"

"No, Blake." she reached up and gently stroked his face. "Our love for each other was more genuine than anything else out there in the world. I swear that I had them leave your heart out of it. I came to get information on Adam. We wanted to know what he was working on, and there was no way for us to get what we wanted with out someone going under cover. I has used the FBI as my cover and only had to wait until Adam had need for an informant, at that point our plan went into action. I came here and started in as an informant together information about what Adam was doing."

"So your little organization is powerful enough to rule the world, has all kinds of scientific advancements, and manages to stay hidden in the back ground; but you can't find out what one man is doing?" Jesse laughed slightly. "Why don't you save yourself from disgrace and tell me how it all works?"

"Alright." Madeline agreed. "I'll give you a lesson in the real politics of the world. About ninety-eight percent of the world's nations are recognized. Each of the recognized countries chooses their own representatives to fill the different positions that are open. Because the system was mostly set up in America it greatly resembles the political system that you are familiar with, and most of our titles are similar to those of American government. We have a speaker, a secretary of public affairs, an attorney general, a secretary of defense, and a treasured for each country. These different roles each have a committee that they belong to. I guess it works out where we have all of the secretaries of public affairs in one committee, all of the attorney generals in another committee, and so on and so forth. From each of these committees comes our top leaders. The organization has a speaker, a secretary of public affairs, an attorney general, a secretary of defense, and a treasure. These people are in charge of the whole system, and they are elected out of the committees. For that reason each country chooses two people to go into their committees. If their attorney general is chosen as the attorney general for the whole organization the second person would step up. It works the same through out all of the positions. Above all of this you have what we call our Organization Leader. That is the only position that no member of the group has control over. The Organization Leader is always a member of the family of the establisher of First Nation, and they lead for as long as they wish. The current Organization Leader is my father. The Hart family is responsible for organizing First Nation as it is today. Below all of the committees you have two different groups. The Research Protection Council and the Public Protection Council. I am a member of the Public Protection Council. Our job is to make sure that he general public is kept safe. Each country chooses its own group of agents for the councils, and in all technicality the Research Protection Council falls under the leadership and jurisdiction of my council."

"And what do they do? Protect scientific research?"

"They are best known as the Dominion; and that is why Lexa can never know what I am telling you. I was actually her 'go to' person. All she had to do was phone a number that was given to her to call if something was going wrong. I made sure that things worked out for the best, but she never knew who she was talking to. I guess that it is only fair since I never knew that you and she were involved with each other." Madeline paused for a minute. "That's all that I can tell you right now. It is a dangerous game that I've been playing for the last couple of years, and I don't want to pull you into the middle of it."

"Does Lexa have any idea about all of this?"

"No." Madeline shook her head. "Of all the people in the Dominion there are only three agents that actually know about First Nation. Lexa was important to them, but not that important. I think that if she had stayed with them for a few more years they would have moved her up."

"I bet that First Nation must hate me almost as much as the Dominion does." Jesse shook his head. "I can't believe that I'm actually accepting the idea that a group like First Nation really does exist. It sounds like something out of a book."

"I never lied to you about anything. Well, if I told you that it was the truth I wasn't lying to you. I never once told you that I was only with the team to act as an informant for Mutant X. I know that you are probably looking at this as a lie of omission, but I did what I had to do. If I had known that you and I would fall in love I would have never hidden anything from you. I would have gotten you into First Nation, and I was working on it when they made me fake my death."

"Let's just ignore the fact that I actually believe all of what you are telling me about this First Nation stuff. We are talking about why you chose to leave me, and I realize that First Nation was a part of that, but for now I just want us to concentrate on what made you leave."

"Alright." Madeline smiled gently. "Back to why I had to leave you."

Flashback

Twelve years before

Two day's after Jesse and Madeline's wedding

At their house

Madeline laid back in the bed with her lap top as she waited for her email account to open up. She read over the list of messages and rolled her eyes at one of the sender's names. After glancing around the room to make sure that she was alone she opened up the message.

'Special Agent Madeline Hart: This is the only warning that we will be giving you. You must respond with in forty-eight hours of opening this message, and you know that we will be notified when the message has been opened so do not try anything funny. You have gone off base with you mission and have lost your objective. We feel that you will not be able to find another useful purpose there. It is the wish of First Nation that you return to the base, alone. Your marriage to Mr. Kilmartin will be an unfortunate loss. While we feel that he could one day be of an useful purpose to us, we feel that for now it is too dangerous to bring him into the organization. You may either have the marriage annulled or you may set up a situation in which he will believe that you are dead. Respond immediately. : The Council of Public Protection of First Nation World Government Agency.'

Madeline let her fingers hover over the keyboard for a second, and then hit reply, furiously typing her message.

'Council of Public Protection of First Nation World Government Agency.: I regret to inform you that I have decided to withdraw my membership in First Nation, and to give up my claim to the title of Organization Leader. I have come to the decision that I would prefer to live as one of the general public. :Special Agent Madeline Hart-Kilmartin.'

She clicked send quickly, and then hid both emails in a private folder.

"Li, do you want to go meet Shal for dinner tonight?" Jesse asked as he stepped into the bed room. "You look upset. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing." Madeline smiled. "Dinner with Shal sounds great. I'll really look forward to talking to her and going over the wedding pictures that our guests took and we got developed ourselves."

"The ones that got me a two hundred and fifty dollar bill at the one hour photo shop?" Jesse crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow.

"Those are the ones." Madeline put her lap top on the bedside table, got up, walked over to Jesse, and softly kissed him. "I love you."

Jesse remained still for a moment and then broke into a bright smile as he kissed her. "You'd better be happy that I love you too."

Madeline giggled, took his hand in hers, and started walking backwards, leading him to the bed. "Why don't I prove how much I love you."

"You are one very, very wicked woman, Mrs. Kilmartin." Jesse softly kissed her. "I wish that I had the time for you to show me how much you love me, but I have to go to my job interview."

"Alright." Madeline sighed. "I hope that you get the job. You've always been a great hacker and finding the weaknesses in computer systems will be a great job for you."

"Not to mention the pay will be more than enough to keep you in your very affluent lifestyle." he rested his forehead against hers. "You are a very spoiled woman. I don't know who in the world your father ever managed to deal with you."

"Well you forget something." Madeline giggled. "My father is the one who spoiled me so much. He's used to me getting whatever I want. I guess that now you get to have the fun of dealing with that."

"Unfortunately." he gave her a quick kiss and then stepped back. "And unfortunately I have to hurry up and get ready or I will be late for the interview. Call Shal and tell her to pick out where she wants to go tonight and we'll meet there around six."

"Alright." Madeline nodded. "Give me a call when you get out of the interview and I'll let you know where we're going. I don't want you to blow the interview by having your cell phone ring during the middle of it."

Jesse changed out of his jeans and t-shirt and put on his best Boss suit with a crisp white dress shirt. "Be good and don't spend too much time at the computer. Don't forget that you actually have to keep house now. We don't have a maid."

"Alright, alright." Madeline turned off her lap top. "Now go get yourself the most wonderful job that that company has."

"I'll try." Jesse softly kissed her and then left.

Madeline glanced around the room for a minute, trying to decide where she needed to do the most work, and then picked up her cell phone. She quickly dialed Shalimar and then started to gather up the laundry while she waited for the feral to answer.

"Hey, Mrs. Kilmartin." Shalimar said when she finally answered. "What are you up to and where is the computer wonder?"

"He's off to a job interview. I was just calling to confirm with you about tonight. Where do yo want to go?"

"That new French Place." Shalimar answered after a moment of consideration. "I've been wanting to go there for a while, but planning the wedding kept me far too busy."

"Well I guess that we can go tonight then. Jesse says that we'll meet you there around six."

"Perfect. Hey, I've got a bit of a surprise for you." she giggled slightly. "I found a photo album that Jesse accidentally left behind, and it has a ton of baby pictures of him."

"So I finally get to see how he looked back then." Madeline smiled wickedly. "Oh, I've got the pictures from the disposable cameras. We can look through all of those too."

"Are we looking at the pictures while we eat, or are we going to you place for picture time?"

"We can all come to the house after we eat. I'll make sure that there is a bottle of wine in the fridge." Madeline hesitated for a moment. "Is there any chance of Adam coming to eat with us?"

"I can try and talk him into it, but he is still pretty upset. He really does not like the fact that you and Jesse have been lying to him for the last year. He never would have liked the idea of you and Jess being together; but he probably would have greatly preferred to be aware of it. I mean what would have happened if you had gotten pregnant? How would you have explained it to Adam?"

"Good point." Madeline took a deep breath and then blew it out. "So what are we going to do about this? Jesse hates the fact that he has broken Adam's confidence."

"Adam is not ready to forgive him. He thinks that Jesse should have told him that he was starting to develop feelings for you. I think that Adam knew that you and Jesse were interested in each other. If he really had a problem with the fact that you two were getting close he probably would have said something."

"I agree with you. I love being married, Jesse is a good husband, and I cannot imagine my life with out him. Adam needs to learn to deal with the fact that I'm married to Jess. I am not going to allow anything to take away my happiness."

Later that night, after dinner and Shalimar has left.

Madeline waited until she heard the shower turn on so that she knew Jesse would not be disturbing her and turned on her laptop. She quickly pulled up her email account to see if she had gotten a response back yet. Her breath caught in her throat as she found the email. She took a deep breath and opened it.

Special Agent Madeline Hart: We regret to inform you that your resignation from First Nation has been denied. It is our belief that you will serve more good with in the organization that you are outside of the organization. Unless you choose to comply and return to our base with in the next week a special operations team will come in with encouragement for you. While we feel that Mr. Kilmartin could one day be of use to us, he is still currently expendable. It is your choice Miss Hart. :The Council of Public Protection of First Nation World Government Agency.

Madeline carefully hid the email with the others that she had received earlier and then turned off her laptop. She got up and walked over to the dresser where she pulled out a soft, white chiffon nightgown. Her clothes were thrown off and she pulled on the slinky nightgown. Digging through the night stand she found a note pad and a pen which she used to write a quick note to Jesse before heading to the living room.

The fire place was set up with a candle rack that held fifty candles and gave the living room warmth. Madeline brought out the partial bottle of wine from earlier that evening and two glasses before she spread a quilt out in front of the fireplace. She poured the wine and then laid down, basking in the light of the flickering candles.

Jesse walked into the living room, still dripping wet from his shower and laid down next to Madeline. "I guess that you are still trying to make up for those pictures."

"No." Madeline smiled softly as she cuddled close to him. "I am just showing you exactly how much I love you, and I'm still celebrating the fact that you are getting a call back! They must have really liked you, which means that you will probably get the job."

"Li, a call back is good, but it does not guarantee that I'm going to get the job. We are talking about a job that most teenagers would love to have, and many of them are good enough at hacking that they could beat me out of it."

"But I bet that none of them are as wonderful as you are." she softly kissed him and stared into his eyes. "I don't know where I would be right now if I wasn't with you. I love you more than anything in the world, and I never want anything to come between us."

Jesse cupped her face in his hands and softly kissed her. "I am not going to let anything come between us. Come hell or high water we are going to be together forever."

Madeline nodded slightly and then kissed him. Her thin body pressed against his and she wrapped her arms around him. Her heart raced as his hands ran over her body and she felt her body begin to heat up.

With in a few moments they had both lost what little clothing they were wearing and they were making love. Madeline's eyes shown brightly and her body was glistening with sweat. Her breath came in short, rapid pants and it was all that she could do to hold on to her sanity. The intensity of their connection increased until it was too much for her. Her voice sounded his name and she kept her eyes locked on his through the climax. At that moment all she could see in his eyes was love and desire.

The passion ended as quickly as it had begun. Madeline curled up into Jesse's arms as they laid quietly together. They both remained silent, needing only the physical contact. Madeline's eyes half-closed as she rested in his arms, all of her worries were temporarily vanished.

Later, around 3 am.

Madeline laid awake in bed ass he contemplated her choices. She glanced up at Jesse who was sound asleep beside her and smiled. They had laid in the living room on the quilt until she had begun to shiver. At that point Jesse had carried her to the bedroom where they made love again; this time in the warmth of their bed. It had been enough to distract Madeline from her one problem, how to deal with First Nation's order.

She laid her head on his shoulder and gently nuzzled her face against his neck, taking in a deep breath and tightening her arm around his body. An annulment or fake her death. Either action would be cruel to him. An annulment would never work. He would be too quick to guess that she had another reason for doing it. After what they had been through just to get married she would not be able to fool him into thinking that she did not love him.

The only choice was to fake her own death. It would have to be a careful move. He would guess what was happening if she 'died' doing something out of character. She hated swimming so drowning was out of the question. A deliberate murder could be a possibility, but Jesse would track down whoever he thought was responsible. He would do the same for an accidental murder too. A car wreck. Jesse was all the time reprimanding hr because she drove recklessly. If it looked like she had died in a car wreck he would not question it.

She blinked back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks and tried to keep her body from shaking. For a second she thought that she had herself calm, but she suddenly felt as if she was going to be violently ill. She got out of bed and ran into the bathroom, hoping to make it before she was sick. She had barely knelt in front of the toilet before she was sick. As she finished she felt her hair being pulled back from her face and Jesse's strong hands resting reassuringly on her shoulders.

"You alright, Li?" Jesse asked as he reached into the linen closet and pulled out a soft wash cloth and wet it with cold water.

"I'm fine." she shakily walked over to the bath tub and sat down on the edge. "I think that I must have eaten something yesterday that didn't agree with me because I was sick this morning too." she carefully washed her face with the wash cloth Jesse handed her and check to see if her hair was still clean. "Go get me some clothes and grab some up for yourself. I need a shower to make me feel better even in I am still clean, but I feel a little shaky still so I want you with me."

"Alright." Jesse nodded. "Just sit still until I get back to you." he stepped into the bedroom and grabbed some clean clothes for both of them before going back into the bath room and starting to run water for a bath. "I'd rather have you sitting down if your feeling that shaky."

"That's fine." Madeline whispered as she pulled off her clothes. "Maybe it's just stress. I've been tired for the last couple of weeks too."

Jesse pulled off his own clothes and then helped Madeline carefully climb into the bath tub. "If you don't' start to feel better over the next day or two I want you to go see a doctor. I don't want you to be sick." he slipped into the tub behind her and poured some lavender foam in under the rushing water.

Madeline laid back in his arms and closed her eyes as the water gently lapped against her skin. "Do you want to have a baby yet?" she asked sleepily.

"Let me find out if I'm going to get that job and if I do we can start trying to get pregnant if that is what you want." he gently rubbed her arms as they rested in the tub. "I never that that you'd want a baby this soon. I was really thinking that it would be a year or two before we started talking about a baby."

"No." Madeline shook her head. "I have waited long enough to get you, and I'm ready for us to settle down and start a family. You are going to make a great father."

"I don't know, Li. Having a baby means taking on a lot of responsibility. We wouldn't be able to live such a carefree life anymore, ad we'd also have to decide what to do a bout a doctor. Beyond whatever powers the kid might get from me there will be trouble just because of who I am. No one in Mutant X is well liked out in society."

"And finding a doctor will be different from getting a job how?" Madeline asked.

"Because even if we do manage to escape the problems of my past associations, we only have a slight chance of escaping the genetic problems. Most likely any child that you and I have together would end up a second generation new mutant. Imagine explaining that to a doctor."

"We can handle it Jess." she cuddled further into his arms. "I knew exactly what I was getting into when I go involved with you, and I also know what I would be getting if I had a baby with you. We can handle having a baby. I know that I would be a stress on us, but it couldn't be any worse than working with Adam and Mutant X was."

"LI, while we were working with Mutant X we could occasionally get a break. If we have a baby there will be no more breaks. You aren't going to be able to spend three hours at the spa, or go shopping for eight hours and we won't be able to just take off and go on weekend trips. Every single thing would have to be carefully planned out well in advance."

"giving up our spontaneity will be worth having a baby. I want to have a family of my own. You and I can enjoy a little more fun while we try for a baby, and once I get pregnant we'll just start to settle down. Maybe we can get a cat or a dog."

"I'll agree to a baby before I even thing about us getting a pet. I've been raised with out any pets, and I don't have any intention of ever getting involved with pets."

"Pets are not such a bad thing. I had tons of them. We could always start with something simple like fish. They would require some care, but not really a whole lot."

"Madeline, I'm serious. I don't want to get into the whole nonsense of having animals around. Raising a baby would be hard enough alone, but adding a pet into the mix would be pure insanity."

"Jesse, I'm not asking you to do anything extreme like getting a lizard or a snake, or a tiger. I'm just asking you to think about getting a kitten or a puppy. I know that we grew up differently, but this is important to me."

"Li, do you have any idea of how much work a pet would be? You might have had a menagerie of animals, but your parents probably did most of the care. Even if you helped with taking care of your pets your parents probably did most of the work. If we get a pet now we wont have a kid old enough to even help a little. We'd have to provide full care for the baby, and full care for any pet that we got."

"Alright, then at least promise me that you'll think about it for when we do have a kid old enough to help us with a pet."

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you." he kissed the top of her head. "I'll think about it, but you have to remember that I'm not the least bit for this."

"You would probably like a cat." Madeline smiled slightly. "It world be a great companion for you while you're at that computer of yours. A cat would climb up into your lap and just sit there and purr while you worked. You would love all of the attention."

"Madeline, how in the world did we loose a single trade negotiation while you were on the team? You are far too good at this."

"I guess it's because you've done the same thing that the President did a few times when I was helping him to negotiate. You get my basic plan, but you forget to get all of the details to the directions. If you follow the general directions you get close, and have a chance of winning, but if you have all the details and follow them supper carefully you have a ninety-nine point nine percent chance of winning. Those tiny little details are what makes things work."

'Then I'd better be prepared for you other little tricks?"

"You'd better be." Madeline giggled and turned in his arms so that she was facing him. "I love you, Jess, and I want us to have a long, happy marriage. I'm not going to fight with you other this whole pet thing, but I am going to try my best to get you to see my point."

"And I'm going to be expecting you to try your best." he gently cupped her chin in his hand and softly kissed her forehead. 'If you didn't try to convince me to see your point I'd be worried aobut you."

"Are you happy about your job? I men, if you get it."

"It is a great job, and it is probably my dream. I guess that if I get the job it will be good, but it is going to be a lot more demanding. We may be losing a lot of our freedom and free time if I get the job."

"I'll be alright." Madeline smiled softly. "You and I are going to have plenty of time to sped with each other, no matter how demanding your job is. We will make time for each other. As much time as we can."

"Don't worry, Li. I'll do whatever I have to do so we can hour our time together. I love you."

She laid her head on his chest and close her eyes. "I love you too, Jess. I can't imagine how my life would be if I lose you now. You are my life."

Jesse ran his fingers up and down her spine as he held her in silence for a moment. "What's wrong, Madeline?"

"Nothing's wrong, Blake." she lid, trying not to tense up. "I just think that it is important for you to know how I feel about you. The water is getting cold. Why don't we finish up here quickly and then go climb back into that nice warm bed of our. We can cuddle and talk until we fall asleep."

End of Flashback.