Part 2

Chapter 18: Just Seen a Ghost

3 Months Later

Today was the first day of June. Which meant my birthday was only a few days away on the sixth. I already had a party planed at the Viper Room. It was the club Raphael owned and we had since become good friends again. He agreed to let me have a table for the night. All those that I knew and still were in town were already invited. I was excited about turning twenty-five; I didn't really understand why I was so happy about getting older though.

Stretching in bed I turned off my alarm and opened the window. I was very proud of my window, which I fought with Adam over and finally won. Lucy jumped up onto my bed wagging her little tail.

"Morning. You hungry? 'Cause I sure am."

Lucy barked a yes and ran out of the room, so I chased after her to the kitchen.

Jesse was making toast and I heard it about to pop; I grabbed a piece of it and put butter on it. "Thanks for the toast, but I could kill for some bacon." I went into the fridge and took out a pound and starting heating a skillet. Jesse's angered face changed seeing that I was going to cook some.

"Oo, sounds good," he said as I started laying the bacon in the pan.

"Sorry bud, dogs only," I laughed and Lucy's ears perked up and her tail wagged as she sat between us. Jesse made a pouting face which became enough for me to change my mind. "Fine...but don't get used to it. That's Lexa's job not mine," I teased him. By now it was common knowledge the two had a thing for each other.

After breakfast I had some training to do; Adam wanted me to train in some kind of course he had set up. When I entered the training room the lights were off and I could sense Adam was there but I couldn't see him.

"Alright, Whatever," I rolled up my sleeves and flashed my eyes. Walking in I tried to keep aware of any potential traps and dodged a falling bag. As I made my way deeper into the maze Adam's scent got stronger. When I got to the source of the scent it was a dummy. "What?" Turning around I got knocked off my feet by Adam jumping down from some platform. "How'd you…" I started to say.

Adam interrupted, "Val you've got to rely on more than just your senses, what if you enemy is silent and carries no scent?"

I looked at him confused, "Everyone has a scent Adam…"

He shook his head no and folded his arms, "Anything is possible."

Just then an alarm sounded as it appeared someone was in close range of Sanctuary. Adam took off to the computer and pulled up the cameras..

"I don't believe it…" he shook his head looked over at me.

I quickly ran over to take a look at the screen. "Jeremy? That's impossible.."

Without heeding to Adam's warning of a trap I took off running out of Sanctuary…I ran until he was in full view…then I slowed down. His scent...it was really him.

He opened his arms and I ran into him…squeezing him and kissing him. "I thought you were dead…they told me you were dead…" I cried.

Running out of Sanctuary was a dangerous task after finding out about a guy named Samuel Wes; he was now our new Gabriel Ashlocke, a mutant with abilities feral, molecular, psionic and elemental.

My adoration turned quickly to disgust, "Where the fuck were you? Why didn't you ever return my calls? Why did you leave us there?"

I slapped him across the face; I was going to do it once more but he caught my hand, I was amazed he could do that. "You deserve to be hit," I growled and flashed my eyes.

He nodded then let go of my hand and started walking back up to Sanctuary, "let's talk inside," I heard him say.

When I went back inside I saw Shalimar was talking to Jeremy; a string of jealously hit me and I gave her a dirty look before turning and going to my room. I could hear Shal ask him what my problem was and I walked slower to hear his response. He gave her none and instead was coming after me. I got to my room and tried to shut the door behind me but he put his hand on the door and pushed back. "Jer don't," I warned, he knew I was stronger than him but he was psionic. When I put both hands on the door he charged in pushing me back and closed the door behind him, "I said back off!" I pushed him back into the door.

"Just let me explain or at least talk for just a minute?" Jeremy sighed and sat down. "I didn't mean to leave you guys back there honestly."

I folded my arms as he started to recount the past…the last time I had seen him at Genomex on a mission.

"I was captured…but not by Genomex, these guys wore suits and they had these strange helmets on so I couldn't use my abilities. I don't know how but they knew me and Adam."

I took a seat on the bed a bit in shock 'cause I never dreamed that he might have been kidnapped because…wait.. "Lexa said you gave her your ring and that you quit.."

Jeremy didn't look surprised, "They made me do that so they wouldn't be suspected."

I shrugged, "All this time you had been held by these people?"

Jeremy nodded.

"But…who were these people? I mean…are they with Samuel? Is that why you're here?"

I could tell he was thinking hard about his answer. "Yeah, his name came up a lot but I never saw him. When I got free I looked that guy up and came back here to talk to Adam."

Looking away from him I just nodded, but I could sense something was up because he was totally lying. I got up and opened the door for him to leave, "I need to change clothes."

When he left I powered up my computer and started searching to see if there was anything on this agency or if Jer was making it up. From all the info Adam knew on the followers of Wes, it didn't sound like the ones Jeremy had described. I ended up searching for two hours but found nothing; I wondered if Adam bought his story.

Frustrated as hell I jumped in the shower and put on some clean clothes afterwards. Looking at the clock I knew it wouldn't be long till Adam would want to talk. I read magazines until four o'clock rolled around and there was a knock on the door.

"No girl scout cookies for me, come back next year," I yelled to the door as a joke.

"Guess it's a good thing I'm not selling cookies," Brennan responded to my surprise. "Oh….it's you" I got up and opened the door, "Sorry…thought you were Adam." Brennan looked at me strangely, "you feeling okay? You look like you've seen a ghost?" I gave a short laugh, "Yeah wonder why that is." Brennan gave me a hug. "I just don't trust him Bren, I talked to him earlier and I could tell he was lying about what happened to him, but I can't find anything on him."

He let go, "Maybe you should tell Adam."

"No." I quickly responded, "He'll just think I'm overreacting or something, besides he seems happy to have him back."

Brennan left to go talk to Adam even though I told him not to. The only reason I left my room was to get lunch and I had my headphones on with a hoodie jacket hoping that it would be obvious that I didn't want to talk to anyone. Quickly I jogged down the stairs and almost tripped when Shalimar pulled the headphones out of my ears.

"What the hell Shal!" I growled flashing my eyes in sudden pure anger.

"No, you tell me what's going on Val," she snapped back.

"It's none of your business alright? Ask Adam or Lexa, k?"

Shalimar didn't move, "No, you're telling me right now!" she demanded.

I laughed, "Or what? You gonna tell my dead mother?" She gave me a strange look then I realized she didn't know about my parents. "Talk to Lexa and leave me alone, sorry."

I apologized before going to the kitchen. Shalimar seemed to have backed off but I could hear her heels click as she went to Lexa's room. I started to cook and wondered what Lexa would tell her. After that whole incidence the place was rather quiet, later I learned Adam and Jeremy were out…so I took the opportunity to search Jeremy's room for clues about his real story.

I did manage to find one thing, a folder that he had tried to hide under the mattress of his bed. "I know you too damn well Jeremy." Quickly I took it out and started to go through it. "Wow, this is more than what Adam has." Photos, charts, background…all on Samuel Wes, even down to his treatments done by…"Adam?" Taking the folder I went to my room and made photocopies of the pages. Just as Adam and Jer got back I slipped into his room and put the folder back just as I had found it.

While I walked back to my room I saw him walking towards me, "Hey…" I said and decided to give him a hug "tonight…we can talk..I promise." Making the promise I gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Welcome home." Smiling, I then started walking knowing the information I needed was waiting for me to read it.

Locking the door I laid on my bed and started really going through the notes. "He must know more than he's telling us.." I noticed Adam's signature was on almost everything. "You got some explaining to do. This is just like Ashlocke, why would you make the same mistake twice? Unless you thought it would be different." On the last page there was some kind of seal. "Who's this?" Taking another piece of paper I copied it best I could.

After hiding the copies I took the picture and went to the computer, but Jesse was on it. "Can you look this up for me? And…don't tell anyone for me?"

He gave me a strange look but took the paper. "It's gonna take a while…and I'm not positive I'll find anything." He drew the symbol into a notepad and started the search then turned around in his chair. "So you gonna at least tell me what this is about?"

I sat down at the computer across from him, "I found it…on some papers in Jeremy's room. Sorry Jess, I just know he's lying about what happened. I'm tired of being lied to! I wanna know the truth. Adam told me he died in a plane crash, remember? We even had a fucking ceremony! He was dead…certain...dead. And now he just shows up with this story about being held by Wes or something? I could feel his pulse rushing, he was definitely lying!" I growled and tried to catch my breath to relax.

Jesse appeared a little shocked by my outburst, "Sorry…I didn't realize.." his voice trailed off, "you know, have you mentioned that first part to Jeremy?"

"Uhm..somewhat," I exaggerated.

Jesse looked back to the computer, "Oh! Found something." He gave a look of confusion, "that's strange...no information is given, just a name. The Order."