HEY!

SOZ this took time to get up but I've been REALLY busy with college and stuff. Don't ask!

Anyways read on… and don't forget to R&R!


'Ok Jesse, it seems all clear.' Adam informed him, along with the rest of them who were there to make sure.

'Excellent! I can start phasing without the breakdown, literally.' He joked as he jumped out of the lab chair that they all hated.

'Yeah, well, take it easy. You might be all clear, but your body needs to rest. You need you get use to the structure again and that could cause-'

'Rest, got it.' Jesse interrupted Adam's scientific explanation of something that he didn't need to know. Adam was a bit annoyed that he had stopped him, but smiled as the rest of them laughed.

'Ok, now you.' Adam said when they had all quietened down, looking at Brennan, where he sat with Shalimar standing in front of him.

'What? I'm fine.' He argued, sitting up a bit straighter.

'Brennan, you were shocked to death. I wouldn't classify that as 'fine'.' Adam countered, but Brennan still made no sign to move. Shalimar had her hands on his arms, which were wrapped around her shoulders. Tugging slightly, she stood out of his embrace.

'Adam's right, Brennan.' Was all that she said, turning to face him. He sighed still not giving up.

'Brennan, if Shal and I hadn't got there when we did, you'd still be dead.' Emma added. He turned to look at her. He sighed again.

'Fine.' he murmured before jumping off of the table and sliding into the chair. Almost as soon as he had, Adam started the scan, as if he was scared that Brennan would jump right out of the chair in an instant.

'Alright.' He said a minute later after going through the results. 'Well, your body looks as if it's gotten over the shock.'

'Told you.' Brennan chided. Adam rolled his eyes as the rest chuckled.

'Do you know how long he was out for?' he asked facing Shalimar. She shrugged so he turned to ask Emma, who responded in the same way and shook her head.

'We just moved him out of the water and gave him CPR.' Emma told him. Adam nodded before looking back at the screen.

'CPR huh? So who gave me mouth to mouth?' Brennan asked, trying to lighten the mood.

'Shal, of course. Even if you were dead, I don't think she would have taken that lightly.' Emma responded. Brennan faked a fallen face.

'And here I was thinking I might have gotten lucky.' Shalimar smirked at him and glowed her eyes. Brennan found it weird that she didn't give him a remark about that.

'Yeah, well, if you had, it wouldn't have been just Shalimar that would have killed you. Again.' Jesse added as an afterthought. The others laughed, including Adam, at his antics, as Emma wondered what he meant. But Brennan noticed that Shalimar's wasn't as real as it had been before.

'Ok. Brennan, you are ok. I'll need to give you a scan tomorrow however, but other that that…' Adam left his sentence incomplete.

'Great. I'll look forward to that then.' He remarked. Adam looked at him over his shoulder as he was closing his files.

'Well, I could always make you stay here overnight.' Adam smirked.

'Tomorrow's fine.' Brennan gave in with a sigh.

'Good boy.' He grinned, before heading out of the lab. 'I've gotta get in touch with some old friends. I'll be in my room if you need anything. Night.'

'Night.' They all called back, slightly curious about the 'old friends'.

'You know, I might just go to bed too. Today's taken a lot out of me.' Emma stated.

'How did it take a lot out of you? You hardly did a thing!' Jesse argued.

'Yeah I did!'

'She's right, you know Jess.' Brennan said as Emma turned to smile at him. 'She annoyed the hell outta me when I was trying to stop that bomb.' Jesse and Brennan laughed and Emma huffed and punched Brennan's shoulder before striding out of the lab. Jesse went after her.

'Emma! C'mon, we were joking!' Brennan could hear his pleading from the lab. Chuckling to himself, he turned his head to look at Shalimar, who was standing in the same place as she was before, looking as if she hadn't noticed what had just happened.

'Shalimar?' he called to her. She turned her head to look at him.

'Hm?' came a distant reply. Brennan looked at her inquisitively.

'You ok baby?' Shalimar walked over to him, arms crossed tightly across he front. Brennan knew this as a sign of uncertainty and distrust.

'Shouldn't I be asking you that?' she almost snapped. She stopped when she was standing at the end of the chair that his was sitting in.

'You know I'm ok.' He replied.

'Yeah, you're ok.' She mocked, giving a dry laugh. Brennan eyed the feral carefully.

'This isn't about me, is it?' he asked cautiously. 'It's about you.' Shalimar scoffed.

'How d'you figure that out?' Brennan shrugged.

'But it's true.' he saw her look down and then away. 'What's going on?'

Shalimar didn't answer. She continued to look away, bidding the tears to stay back once again so she could tell him. She saw out of the corner of her eye Brennan sitting up straight, staring at her to talk to him.

'What happened today, Brennan?' she whispered, turning to look at him. Brennan was confused.

'What?'

'What, happened?' she said slowly. 'You got yourself killed. If Em and I hadn't came when we did...' she trailed off, not wanting to think about it. Brennan moved down the chair to get closer to her.

'I didn't get myself killed, Shalimar-' he began.

'Yes you did!' she yelled at him, taking a step back.

'Then what am I doing here?' Brennan yelled back. Shalimar stared him before turning around, trying to keep her anger down.

'You don't get it, do you?' she said between gritted teeth.

'No I don't.' Brennan replied to her back. 'Cos you're not telling me what it is.' Shalimar didn't reply. She just closed her eyes and took steadying breaths.

'I can't do this anymore.' She told him.

'Do what?' Brennan asked, watching her closely.

'This!' she said, waving her hand around before truing around. Brennan tried to figure out what she meant before it hit him.

'Are you saying,' he paused. 'that you wanna break up?' Shalimar stayed quite for a bit before turning to face him, seeing he was looking straight at her.

'Yes.' She said diffidently. Tears started to fall now as she saw Brennan staring at her. 'No.' she whispered.

'Shal, which is it? Do you or don't you?' Brennan asked, keeping his voice calm.

'I don't know!' she yelled.

'You don't know?' Brennan scoffed.

'No! I don't. I don't want to break up with you, but I can't keep doing this. Every time we go into a mission, I'm gonna keep remembering what happened today and I can't go through that!' Shalimar had gotten closer to Brennan now and was losing her battle to stop the tears from falling. 'I don't want to lose you Brennan.' She sobbed.

Brennan reached out to her, but she pulled away. He tried again, standing up and grabbing her around her waist, pulling her to him. He hated to see her like this. Shalimar struggled against his grip, trying to get away, but he held her tight.

'Shh. You won't lose me. I promise.' He comforted her. She continued to struggle against him. Pounding her fists into him, the force of them dying down each time, until she stopped and let him hold her.

Brennan walked back to sit on the medical chair, bringing her to stand between his legs as she buried her face in his shoulder. He continued to whisper soothing words to her a she stopped crying. Finally, she turned her head outwards as Brennan rested his chin a top of her head.

'What are we going to do?' she whispered to him. Brennan continued to stroke her hair.

'What do you want to do?' he whispered back. Shalimar shrugged.

'What if I said I wanna break up?' Brennan sighed.

'I'd say ok, if that's what you want.'

'I don't wanna break up with you.' she confessed. Brennan nodded. 'But I don't wanna get hurt.'

'I would never hurt you Shalimar, you know that.'

'Not intentionally. But you did today. When I saw you on the floor…' she stopped before the tears would start to fall again. She could feel the lump in her chest, burning.

'Ok. I'm sorry.' He soothed, kissing the top of her head.

'It wasn't your fault. It's unavoidable in our lives.' They remained in silence for a while as Shalimar gathered her thoughts. 'When I saw you on the floor, I realised something. My whole world fell apart, Bren. I thought that I had lost you.'

'I told you, you're not gonna lose me.' Brennan reminded her. Shalimar stood back to look at him.

'How can you say that? After what happened today, how could you say that? How do you know what will happen next time? What will happen to any of us?' tears pricked past her eyes now. 'I love you, Brennan. I love you, and I can't help it. And I can't ignore it.'

Brennan lifted a hand to wipe away her tears as they fell. Slowly, Shalimar closed her eyes and took one of his hands before leaning in to kiss him. Brennan returned the kiss with passion before they broke after for breath.

'I love you too, Shal. You know that.' She nodded as they rested their foreheads against each other. She pulled back to looked at him.

'If we break up, it wouldn't mean that I don't love you. I can't change that. Whether we're together or not, I'll love you.'

'I know, Shal.' Brennan told her.

'And if we do break up,' Shalimar struggled to keep her voice steady. 'It wouldn't mean that if something like today happened again, I wouldn't be hurt. I would be.'

'Shal…' Brennan began, gently stroking her back but she stopped him from going on.

'No, Bren. I need to get this out. I need to tell you what's going through my head.' Brennan hesitated before nodding. 'I'm not use to this, Brennan. I've never been this close to someone. Not in this way. I need you to help me.'

'You know I will.' Brennan told her. She nodded.

'I'm not use to being vulnerable. It's in my genes to protect everyone. And being vulnerable affects that. But I know that you've got my back, always.' She looked at Brennan once again, as he waited for her to go on. 'What I'm trying to say is that, there would be no difference whether we were together or not, except for the fact that I don't think I could handle it well if we weren't.'

'So you wanna keep us going?' Brennan asked her. Shalimar nodded. 'Good.' Shalimar smiled for the first time during the whole conversation.

'I think it would be in the best interest of the team if we did, you know?' she joked.

'Oh yeah, like there's no perks for you.' Brennan rolled his eyes. Shalimar hit him before bringing him into a kiss. Breaking apart, Brennan whispered. 'I love you Shal. Always, and forever.'

'I'm gonna hold you to that.' She smiled kissing him again. 'I love you too.'

'Good.' He laughed as he jumped off of the chair and wrapped am arm around her and led he both out of the lab.

They were both tired from the day, and even though it had ended in a fight, both were glad that they had had it.


Please R&R!

I'm gonna try and update asap!

But college is now on my mission list tooo!

xXx Tiana