Jesse shook his head as he looked at the woman sitting next to him. "You were crazy enough to think that they could hurt us? Madeline, you know that I would have fought until the end to have you. I would have never let them do anything to come between us."

"You don't understand, Blake. They never would have come straight out and done something to you. First Nation is the most patient group that you would ever meet. They have been known to spend years waiting for the right moment to kill someone. There have even been a few instances where an agent has spent a lifetime going after one person. I was actually hoping to get the lifetime job of watching Adam so we could be together. They would have laid in wait until they could have gotten to you, and I would have lived in constant fear of them finding that perfect moment."

Jesse nodded and then smirked slightly. "How did you get out of it, Li? If they are so bound and determined to get what they want, how did you manage to get out of there after they pulled you back in?"

"I'm the leader now. I make the rules, and that means that I can do whatever I want with whoever want."

"And of course what you want to do is come back here and try to get back with me." Jesse shook his head as he stood up. He walked across the room and then turned back to face Madeline. "Can you tell me why you really thought that this would work out? As much as we loved each other we were both absolutely miserable for the entire time that we were together. I nearly went crazy and I nearly drove you crazy too."

"Nearly drove me crazy!" Madeline stood up and put her hands on her hips. "Oh, hell no, Blake, you did drive me crazy! You and the baby that we lost was enough to drive me into four years of psychiatric care! I couldn't cope with the fact that we had first been spilt up and then that I had lost the only thing that was getting me through our break up! After I lost the baby I tried multiple times to kill myself! I could not figure out how to live with out you, and I didn't want to even try to work on living with out you! But, hell, you had no trouble with it! Look at you, all engaged and about to be a father! I almost want her to lose the baby so you two can understand the pain that I went through!"

"Don't you even think like that, Madeline! If you know Lexa as well as you say that you do you'll know that she couldn't handle that! She's still not fully over losing her brother!"

"I'm sorry." Madeline sighed slightly. "I really didn't mean to say that. I'm just so jealous of her though. She is living the life that I want to be living, the life that I would be willing to fight for to have."

"I'm really trying to stay calm, Li. I really am trying. It is jest getting way too hard to not yell at you. I know that you don't really understand this, but I'm happy with Lexa. She's been good for me and I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

"You already promised to spend the rest of your life with me. You made that promise to me twelve years ago, and I'm not about to lose you. I love you, Blake. That's why I left you back then, and that is why I came back for you."

"I know that you love me, you gave up your life so they wouldn't kill me, but you have to understand that I moved on. I was heartbroken after you supposedly died. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I spent a month sitting around the house, doing absolutely nothing. I didn't want to start a new job, and I didn't want to go back to Mutant X. the only thing that I wanted to do was get you back. I probably would have stayed into hat house of the rest of my life if Adam hadn't convinced me to move on."

Madeline smiled softly, stood up, walked over to Jesse, and softly kissed him. "I really thought that you had just forgotten about me the second that I died." she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his shoulder. "You were my whole life, and I have thought about you every single day since I left you. I never want to be away from you again, and I'm not going to let anything come between us. Post pone the wedding and you'll see that you want me too."

"I can't do that to her. I've already put Lexa through hell because of you, and I can't do anything else to hurt her like that. I just got over you. I just got to the point where I could step back from my marriage to you and your supposed death. I just managed to find it in myself to move on and consider getting involved with another woman."

"You are going to have to explain to me what it is about here that is so wonderful. I was her handler, and I know what she's like, and the Lexa Pierce I know is no the kind of woman that you could have fallen in love with."

"She's not the Lexa that you knew." Jesse smiled slightly as he stepped back from Madeline and sat down in his computer chair.

Flash back

2 years before.

Jesse and Lexa crunched through the snow as they walked to the frozen pond.

Jesse held her tight and led her over to a bench where they could put on their ice skates. "Lace them up tight so you can't bend your ankles. If you don't you could break an ankle or in the least be extra sore later on."

Lexa looked at him apprehensively, her dark hair and bright blue eyes set off by the pure white of her coat and hat. "Are you sure that this is safe?"

"You'll be fine." he laughed and softly kissed her. "You know that I wouldn't have brought you out here if you weren't going to be alright. I love you, Lexa."

"I love you too, and I trust you; so if I get hurt it is all on you." she tightened the laces on her skated until she felt as if she was about to cut the circulation to her feet and then tied them tightly. "You ready to try this?"

"If you are." he stood up and took her hand as he helped her to stand up. "We'll start off slowly; and I'm going to stay with you the whole time. Don't get scared about it. you are going to be fine. I'll have you skating in the Olympics in no time at all."

"I don't think that you are quiet that good." Lexa laughed. She slipped slightly and grabbed Jesse in an attempt to keep her balance, but only succeeded in knocking them both down.

For a moment they both laid in silence, and then simultaneously started laughing.

"Alright, maybe we wont get to Olympic skating today," Jesse sighed as he pulled Lexa to him for a soft kiss, "but at least we'll get you where you can stay on your feet."

"That would be a good idea." Lexa held Jesse's hands tightly as he helped her back up on his feet. "You don't have to do this you know. I've made it this long with out knowing how to ice skate, and I think that I can get by with out learning how to do it now."

"This isn't going to be as bad as you are thinking. I promise that you'll be standing on your own feet by the end of the day." he held her hands tightly as he helped her balance. "All right, I'm going to be skating backwards while I hold on to your hands. We're going to take this nice and slow. After you get more comfortable we can try to go just a little bit faster."

"I'll be happy to not kill myself."

"Push off gently. I don't want you getting ahead of yourself. Do your best to keep your feet under you, and make sure that you tell me if I'm about to run into something. I don't want to hit the ice again, it's too damn cold."

"I guess that if you go down I'd go down too, and I agree that the ice is too cold for that." she pushed off gently, gliding slightly closer to Jesse.

Jesse pushed off with his skates, going backwards. "You are doing well. I just want you to relax a little. You don't have to be so stiff."

"I'm just trying to remember all of the things that you told me to remember."

"It's not that bad, Lex." Jesse laughed as he felt the woman's hands tighten around his. "You are really doing a pretty good job so far."

"If I fall again I am going to have to kill you. It's freezing cold out here and that ice is worse!"

"What would you expect it to be like out here? June weather with the ice the temp of bath water?"

"This is not the time to be making fun of me." Lexa gritted her teeth. "I don't know how in the world you managed to get me to agree to come out here."

"As soon as we get back home I will take you into the spa room and let you get into the hot tub. Then after you get nice and warm we can go get into bed and cuddle for a while. I'll make sure that you get to stay warm and cozy for the rest of the night."

"You are going to have to make sure that you really make this up to me. I am going to be in the mood to be very demanding for the rest of the night."

"You can be as demanding as you want to be tonight since I did drag you out here today." he slowly released his grip on her hands and then turned so he was skating beside her. "I told you that you would be on your feet pretty quickly."

"You have too much faith in me." she carefully reached over and took his hand. "I don't want you to let go of my hand yet."

"Don't worry. I'll stay here until you're ready for me to let go." he tightened his hold on her hand. "You are getting good at this though."

"If I'm getting good at this I'd hate to see what your definition of bad is." she shot him a look. "I still feel like I'm going to fall on my butt and break something."

"You are going to be just fine." Jesse laughed and then suddenly turned serious. "I think the ice is a little thin here. I want you to skate very slowly."

"I thought that you said this was safe." Lexa held onto him tightly and her voice quavered in fear.

"It is going to be alright. I want you to let go of me." Jesse tried to remain as calm as possible. 'I don't want you to get any where near any section that we've skated over. You are going to have to get a little distance between us. I want you close enough that I can get to you, but I don't want our combined weight to stress the ice too much."

"I should have known that this was too dangerous." Lexa slowly let go of Jesse's hand.

"Follow me back to the edge. The quicker that we get off the ice the better." Jesse turned slightly to check on Lexa and then felt himself going down as the ice broke.

"Jesse!" Lexa yelled as she started to skate over.

"Stay back!" Jesse yelled to her as he struggled to stay about the water. "If you get too close you could fall through too!"

"Jesse!" Lexa called as she watched him go under the water. Vaguely remembering what he had told her on the drive out she laid flat and scooted over closer to the hole in the ice. She let out a sigh of relief when Jesse re-surfaced, but still felt worried knowing that he could not stay in the icy water for long. "We've got to get you out."

Jesse managed to grab the ice and gave her a reassuring smile. "I think I can pull myself out, but the coat is too damn heavy for me to keep on now that it's been soaked through. I'm going to give you the keys and then go under long enough to take off the coat."

"Jesse! Don't! Please don't!" she grabbed his hand, the cold biting through her gloves. "Don't go under again!"

"It is going to be alright." Jesse promised as he put his keys on the ice. "I'll be right back up. You jut slide back for a minute."

"Jesse!" Lexa yelled as he went back under. She slipped back and watched apprehensively, holding on to the hope that he would resurface quickly.

Time crawled, each second seemed to be ten years. Lexa drew in a deep breath and held it for as long as she could, trying to figure out how long Jesse could last underwater. When the burning in her lungs became too much she finally let the breath out. Tears began to stream down her face as she realized how long Jesse had been under the water. As her eyes began to blur with tears she finally saw Jesse come back above the water.

Jesse caught the ice and held on to it as he caught his breath. He couched a few times, chocking slightly on the water that he had accidentally swallowed. Looking over at Lexa he will the strength to lift himself out of the ice into his body. He pushed up against the ice, lifting his body out of the water after struggling for a moment he was out of the water and onto the ice. He laid still for a moment to catch his breath and then crawled to where Lexa was. "It's alright." he whispered to her as he shivered. "I'm out of the water."

"Oh, Jesse!" Lexa sat up and threw her arms around him. "I thought that you were going to die! Don't you ever do that to me again!"

"I'll try not to." he smiled weakly and rested his head on her shoulder.

"We need to get you to the car and back to Sanctuary." she slipped back from him and unzipped her coat. "You are soaking wet and you are going to need this a lot more than I do." she took off her coat and wrapped it around him and put her hat on his head. "I'm going to help you over to the shore and then I'm going to get the car." her voice quavered as she saw how weak he was. "Stay with me, Jess! You can't die on me like this! I won't let you!"

Jesse fought to open his eyes again. "I'm still here, Lex."

Lexa nodded and then carefully started to help Jesse to the shore. By the time they were back on the shore Lexa was out of breath and feeling the cold chilling her to the core. She collapsed on the ground with Jesse, trying to find the strength to go on. She started to cry as she realized that she did not have the strength to make it any further. She sat up just enough to kiss Jesse and was startled when his hand slipped behind her neck. "I love you." she whispered as she stared into his eyes.

"I love you too." he whispered back. "Go get the car. We're going to be alright. You're doing a good job."

Lexa nodded and kissed him again. "I'll be back in just a minute." she got up and forced herself to run to the car. She got in and started it, turning the heat to full blast as she drove back to Jesse. Adrenaline kicked in as she parked the car and got out to help Jesse into the car. She quickly got him into the warmth and wrapped him up in the blankets that were in the back seat.

As Lexa drove at top speed to get back to Sanctuary Jesse slipped one hand out from under the blankets and put it on Lexa's knee. "I don't know what I would have done with out you. You just saved my life."

"If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't have even been out there."

"I only wanted to give you a chance to learn to do something that I love. I just thought that it would be something we could enjoy together."

"Well you and your romantic notions almost got you killed."

"I know." Jesse laughed slightly. "I promise to give you a better date later."

"I don't need it as long as I've got you."

End of flash back

"You really manage to amaze me sometimes. So what if she managed to cause you to nearly drown and then did absolutely nothing to save you? Why the hell are you so impressed by that?"

"If I had let her, Lexa would have jumped right into the water in an attempt to save me. I just refused to allow her to do that. She would have inevitably made a mistake that would have cost her her life.?"

"I don't know why you are so sure about her, Jess. She's done nothing but cause you trouble from the start. How many times did she lie to you at the beginning? How many times did she do something that put the team in danger?"

"I'm not going to play that game with you, Li. I spent a year with you, so don't think that I don't know what your tactics are. I know exactly what you are trying to do, and it is not going to work on me. You can pull every single one of you tricks, and it is still not going to matter."

"Alright then, why don't we try playing this a different way?" Madeline smiled softly. "We can just talk and be nice. Catch up with each other a little." she sat down in his lap and slid one hand behind his head as she kissed him.

Jesse resisted at first, but then found himself slipping into the kiss as an overwhelming sense of calmness came over him. He pulled the woman closer to him as he kissed her back.

Madeline pulled back from him, her eyes sparkling, and stood up. She took his hands in hers and pulled him to his feet before she started to carefully walk backwards to the bed. She stopped when she felt the edge of the bed against her legs. She let go of his hands and started to unbutton Jesse's shirt, her fingertips brushing against his skin.

It only took a few minutes for Madeline to finish stripping Jesse of his clothes, and for him to do the same for her. They fell back on the bed together, tangled in the sheets and each other's arms.