Okay I was feeling like going above and beyond today. So you get 2 updates! Wow. Okay now I need to catch my breath. NOT
Disclaimers are always the same... If you think I own them you are so wrong...
Thanks to all for the reviews and of course to my awsome betas Stephanie, Sara and Rachel. They keep me going!
11 Trust and Friendship 11
Brennan groaned as he felt his body hit the wet cement of the floor. They had been moved again. Jesse wasn't nearby from what he could see as he cracked his eyes open and took a glance around at his new surroundings. His head still hazy, and body sore from the beating it had just taken. Similar to the past few places that they had been, it had cement floors at least an inch of water on the floor, metal cot, toilet, and door; everything to deter him from even attempting a try at using his powers. There were no windows, and the door was equipped with a hatch at the bottom, he assumed to slide a food tray into. The room was only about 6 ft by 8 feet, and that was giving generous dimensions. He was almost positive that he heard Jesse call his name before his door clanged shut so hopefully they weren't too far away from each other.
Jesse was fairing no better. The governor that was imbedded in his neck prohibited him from any use of his powers. His cell was a mirror of Brennan's from what he could tell of the glance he had from the door. He had looked up just in time to see Brennan being thrown in the cell across the hall, and then his door was locked shut. He had called out Brennan's name in hopes of letting him know they were still close by. He wondered if it had been a waste of breath though.
Brennan had been drugged unconscious. They had come to move the two, and in a burst of effort, Brennan and Jesse had tried to attack them. But starvation rations and intermittent physical abuse had made it difficult for them to perform at a quarter of the ability either was capable of. Jesse had been punched in the face, and then knocked out by a blow to the back of the head after getting in a few surprise punches and kicks. Brennan had fought a little harder knocking out the one guard who initially grabbed him with a swift kick to the side of the head, and was then tackled by three others, one of who injected Brennan with a heavy sedative.
Outside the door Jesse was able to hear the sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway, and contented himself with the thought that they were getting fainter. He decided to chance a call across the hall to Brennan, although he wasn't sure that Brennan would even hear him. "Hey, Bren? Are you ok?" He winced as his head pounded with every syllable, reminding him again of the hard kick he had recently taken to the head.
A moment later he heard Brennan's hoarse reply, "I'm good as can be expected, Jess. Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Jesse snorted, thinking how not okay they actually were. "You managed to knock one of them out!"
"How would you know?" Brennan countered as he attempted to stand up and winced, "You were out for the count."
"I heard one of them asking if John was still unconscious." Jesse had seated himself against the door and looked sadly at the horrible accommodations.
Their new residence held a striking resemblance to the holding cells at a prison. He wouldn't be surprised at all if that was where they were. At least he had room enough to pace a little. His muscles were extremely sore from their previous lodgings. Jesse's room, like Brennan's, was approximately 6 foot by 8 foot with little more then a cot and a toilet. He stood and laid down on his cot thinking about how comfortable it was when he and Lexa were sharing her bed. That was his last coherent thought before drifting off to sleep and dreaming of a chalet in the mountains, a bottle of wine, and Lexa.
Shalimar had closed the journal and put it beside her on the rock she was situated on. She sat enjoying the first rays of sun the day was casting when she heard the footsteps and smelled Beau approaching with a cup of coffee.
"I figured I'd find you out here." Beau's deep accent rumbled as he stood next to her rock. "I was wondering what you and Lexa found out? She's still asleep so I figured I would come find you and ask."
"Thanks," Shalimar said taking the coffee and sipping it slowly. She felt like she was going to need Coffee-holics Anonymous once this ordeal was over. "We're meeting Ian at 12:15; and seeing what he has to say."
"Angel and I will come with you, just in case." Beau said. His tone implied there would be no arguing about it.
"I don't know if I ever told you how much it has meant to me and Lex, that you both have helped us so much." Shalimar said, finally turning her eyes to meet his. "I don't know what we would have done without all of your help." she said honestly.
"I seem to remember a time when you wouldn't give up on Angel and me." He grinned,. "You and Adam made it possible for us to be here to help you. We have enjoyed working with Adam for the past few years, and we were worried when we hadn't been contacted those last few weeks." Beau paused to look out over the horizon and across the beach before tuning back to Shalimar and venturing on. "So will you tell me about you and Brennan?" he asked, his gaze almost pinning her in place.
"I don't know what to say." Shalimar felt a nervous grin slide across her lips, as she looked back across the bay to watch the sun reflecting off the water. "We were always coming so close to each other, but one of us would always pull away. More often then not it was me. I was scared to get involved with him… even though we had this almost instantaneous attraction to each other." Shalimar turned her face to look at Beau. "I'm in love with him. I love him and I never told him because I was afraid." A tear slowly trailed down her cheek.
"I am far from an expert on matters of the heart. I've always been a better soldier then a lover. Angel and I have been through a lot, but I try to show my feelings in my actions and she has accepted that. From what you've said over the past few months, I think you and he have done the same without ever realizing it." Beau climbed on the rock and sat next to Shalimar, putting his arm around her and letting her rest her head on his shoulder.
"Brennan and I have been so close for a while, and I was always scared to be another notch in his bed post. He used to come home smelling of his girlfriends all the time, and I didn't want that for me, especially when we had to live and work together. I just figured that we were experiencing an infatuation or lust and it would eventually wear off.
"But right before I was captured by Ashlocke a few years ago, Brennan and I were like two rockets with lit fuses toward each other. I hoped at the time it was physical attraction and it would soon burn off... I guess it did for a while, but he has always been very protective of me.… even though he seems to get in over his head just as much." Shalimar stopped thoughtfully, grinning to herself. "I didn't know why. I knew he had a few girlfriends, and wasn't with anyone for long. He had several girls that he was close to in the past year, and I guess I just kept him at an arm's length to protect myself. After most of my boyfriends, it's a wonder I haven't sworn off men all together."
"Maybe he was afraid to admit to his feelings too." Beau stated simply.
Shalimar turned her head with a grin., "I'm sorry, I'm going on and on like some weepy teenager in some crappy prime-time drama. This probably isn't what you wanted when you came down here."
"No, but I have always enjoyed your company, Shalimar. This seems to be bothering you a lot, and you need to be mentally well to deal with what's coming. I'm still not sure if you'd rather talk to Angel about it."
Shalimar's snort echoed softly over the sand, "I have no idea why it's easier for me to talk to you then her. I care about her a lot, and you both are members of our family now. For some reason, I haven't been able to open up to her or Lexa."
"It's my big manly muscles, isn't it?" Beau joked flexing his arm
The two laughed for a moment enjoying the camaraderie.
"I never believed in soul mates, but that is the only thing I can think to describe me and Brennan." Shalimar said soberly. "I just know I will do anything to get him and Jesse back."
The two sat on the beach watching the sun and the water for a few moments before walking back to the house together. Shalimar felt immensely better, and if Ian Massett didn't provide the answers, she would beat them out of him. Smiling at that thought, she grabbed her clothes and jumped in the shower.
Shalimar and Lexa entered the diner at 12:10 and immediately looked around. It was pretty busy, but they were able to situate themselves in a corner with a good view of the door. Outside, Angel was across the alley on the roof with a bird's eye view of the front and rear entrance to the diner. Beau was out in front pretending to work on the engine of the car.
At 12:20 Shalimar and Lexa had ordered coffee and decided to wait and see what happened. At 12:30 the two began to get antsy. Lexa was the one to finally crack. "Do you think he's coming? Is this a set up or something?"
"Lex, let's just give it another half-hour. We don't know much, if anything, about him." Shalimar said but felt herself beginning to lose hope too.
Just then someone vaguely resembling the man called Ian Massett walked in. He wore a beaten pair of jeans and a faded flannel with an even older blue tee-shirt under it. Between that, the hair that was longer and darker than in the photo and the baseball cap, he was almost a completely different person then what they'd expected. For some reason he had known them right away though. Before the waitress could ask he had pointed to their table and said he was meeting them. He slid into the booth, smoother then a man wearing those ratty clothes should have, and gave them a broad grin.
He was a fairly attractive man, about 6' with green eyes and light brown hair. He had a boyish grin but his eyes belayed that of a man older then his appearance suggested.
Shalimar, who was already on edge, looked as if she was ready to take on the entire diner if needed. Lexa on the other hand was clenching her teeth and trying not to scream at the attention he had just called to them. Several of the patrons turned to look at him, noticing the unkempt man meeting with the two casually dressed women.
"Hello, ladies," he said, but suddenly his eyes shifted from that of carefree and happy to all business. "I can see you're not in the mood to play so we will get to the point. I know where they are, we have some time, and I have another disc for you to see."
Both women looked at each other and then back to him with a look akin to disbelief. Shalimar was the first to break the silence on their end. "How do we know you're not setting us up?"
"Because Adam told me to tell you that he knew you took the fall for Jesse when he broke the door to the lab after he first got there. He also knows that you, Lexa, were the one to reset all his pass codes just a week after being in Sanctuary." He paused and watched as both sets of eyes looked almost incredulously at him before continuing, "I know you don't want to trust anyone right now, but you have to believe me. I am here to help you, and we have a lot to do in a small amount of time. Are you coming with me?"
Shalimar and Lexa could do nothing more then look at each other in stark disbelief of the strange facts that Adam had told this person. Facts they were almost certain he would have told no one else. Shalimar looked over, met Ian's eyes, and then nodded. With that they left the money for the check on the table and made their way out of the diner.
Outside Beau and Angel watched as the three exited. As Beau looked over, he saw Lexa nod and her lips shift into a half-smile. Beau looked up at Angel and gave the signal for the all clear and watched as she somersaulted down the side of the two-story building.
"I see you came prepared," remarked Ian as he walked to his Jeep in the parking lot. He turned to look at the four who were now flanking him. "We need to go somewhere safe that we can talk. We can go to my place if you like, or to yours."
Lexa spoke before anyone else could confer. "We'll go to yours."
"Is that a good idea?" Angel and Shalimar said together.
Lexa shot them a look, and then pulled Angel, Shalimar, and Beau aside. "We can't very well give up where we are living yet. We might be poised to walk into a trap, but at least we will be expecting it. If we take him to our safe house we are compromising our safety even more." She turned with an apologetic look toward Beau and Angel. "You two have a choice…, you can stay with us or go back to the safe house and wait there for us to call you."
Beau didn't even hesitate, "We are going with you."
Angel nodded her head in agreement, and looked to Shalimar who had a look of heavy thoughts firmly in place. "What is it, Shal?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm not sensing anything that is hostile or wrong coming from him. He smells like he lives alone. I don't smell anything else on him but the outdoors. I'd have been able to pick up the scent of another person on him if he had been in contact with them recently. Maybe he is legit." Shalimar said and then looked to Angel and Beau, happy to see their nods of agreement.
The drive to Ian's house took almost an hour. Both Shalimar and Lexa chose to ride with Ian and leave Beau and Angel to trail behind. During the drive, Lexa and Shalimar grilled Ian on how he knew Adam and what he knew of the occurrences of the past year, including the disappearing stunt Adam had pulled on the Dominion. Ian was cooperative, and straight forward with them about what he did and didn't know. He knew that the Dominion's headquarters had blown up, but didn't immediately know that Adam was involved or taken. Adam had contacted him through secure channels begging for his aid about a month ago.
"All he could think about was the four of you," Ian said honestly. "He compiled as much of his work as he could in secret to give to you and hoped that I would be able to get it to you. The whole plan actually depended on you, Shalimar."
Shalimar looked slightly taken back before asking, "Why me? What was so important about me?"
"Just being you!" Ian said with a mysterious grin, but realized that he needed to elaborate or risk bodily injury from the two women in the vehicle with him. "Adam was sure you would visit Sanctuary, but we didn't know when. We had hoped you hadn't already, and when I got there to drop off the disk, nothing had been disturbed, which seemed a good sign. I had to leave the disk in a place that we knew you would find, and pray that you would be there soon to pick it up."
"That was a lot of chance taking just to get in contact with us," Lexa said as her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Ian continued on, "You see Adam was scared that the Dominion would have been able to trace our contact so he set up as many safety nets as possible. He knew if he found you, it would only be a matter of time before the Dominion would be able to locate you through him. He didn't want to take that chance. It took me almost two days to decrypt the email he sent me asking for help. We didn't want there to be a direct trail leading to you. It was sheer luck that Shalimar found the disk just a week after I had planted it."
"What if that hadn't worked? What then?" Lexa countered, not believing that so far all of their plans had hinged on good luck.
"I had back-up plans in place, but I wanted to try this first because it was a more indirect route then trying to contact you directly. I have, so far, been safe from the Dominion, but if I was to try to locate you directly, it would have sent up red flags with them, possibly and most likely sending them after me."
Lexa relaxed slightly in her seat, relieved to hear that things hadn't just been left to chance.
"What if the Dominion returned and retrieved the disk before I had gotten to it?" Shalimar asked, now coming out of the incredulous shock she felt knowing she had been the lynchpin in a plan she had no knowledge of.
"That was one of the more clever programs built onto that disk if you ask me. Adam created a hidden file that would detect a certain code issued by all of Sanctuary and Underground databases. If it had been opened on any computer but one containing that code, it automatically would have deleted itself and run a virus through the entire system. He had made it so even I couldn't open the files from my computer without the risk of corruption. Of course he knew I would be much quicker to remedy the problem with my…talents." Ian cracked a big smile and looked very pleased. "I helped to build and program all of the Sanctuary and safe house systems when Adam first started. I was a child genius who graduated MIT at 16." He was a little disheartened at their lack of interest in his accomplishments so he pressed on. "But I see that's not impressing you. Long story short, since I helped to set up the systems, I knew all about the codes because I helped to set them there."
The conversation continued onto what had happened over the past few months with Adam and what Ian knew, which unfortunately wasn't much. He knew that the Creator was using him to help further his genetic research, and learn how to control the genetic strands at any level of development. He was able to tell them that Adam had been feeding him coordinates of where he would be able to find Brennan and Jesse and when. They learned that Ian was an elemental that could touch anything electrical and, for lack of a better term, speak with it. He was able to place his hand on a computer with an internet connection and hack into a banks computer half-way across the world. It made it easy for him to run his computers and hack into systems without being caught since he could destroy any back traces. When they arrived at Ian's house, they were both surprised to find a cabin in the woods. They had noticed the woods getting denser as they approached, but it opened into a sparser area where the cabin lay.
"This has been my personal safe house for the past few years." Ian grinned as he parked his car. "I've been living off of the grid for the most part. I'm sure you both tried to track me with very little success, other then the email address I wanted you to find." Both Lexa and Shalimar nodded in assent, but let Ian continue. "I think that is why Adam contacted me. He knew that I would be one of the most difficult people to track, and would know how to help you hide as well. Come on, let's go in and get a drink. It's freezing this high up in the mountains."