Welcome to My Hell

Brennan felt like he walked into a hornet's nest.

As soon as he hit the control room entrance he felt the waves of tension flowing from the two blonds and it stopped him in his tracks. It was clear to him that they were fighting, and even clearer that what they were fighting about was either private because as soon as Jesse saw him, he stopped in midsentence.

"Is there something we can help you with Brennan?" Jesse said, a bit too touchy.

Brennan sighed and raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. Ever since he came to Mutant X, Jesse and he had been in a kind of dance. One minute Jesse was a master flirt, and made Brennan's groin tighten. Then the next, he was distant and cold, or challenging. It seemed the closer Brennan tried to get, the farther Jesse wanted him away. He could feel Jesse's tension radiating when ever they were alone together, and it wasn't always sexual.

This past month, it had been worse. Jesse had been avoiding him as much as possible and ever chance he got, started to pick fights. It had gotten so bad that when Adam had to go to a convention, he left Brennan and Jesse at Sanctuary with Shalimar as referee to work it all out.

"I was just looking around for everyone."

"Well you found us," Jesse snapped and turned his back on his two team mates and went back to his computer.

"Right, I think I'll go get some lunch…" Brennan said with a defeated sigh.

"Wait a minute Brennan, I want your opinion," Shalimar called, still glaring at Jesse.

Brennan had the feeling that he was about to be placed smack dab in the middle of the two 'siblings' fight, but still he said, "Sure Shal. What can I do?"

"Answer a simple question for me; does it seem sane to you to go after somebody that nearly killed you?" she asked, putting emphasis on sane and killed.

Brennan noticed Jesse's back tighten and he could just feel the anger coming off in waves. "Ummm….maybe if you went alone…I mean it's not the wisest idea to start with, to many emotions… but defiantly not alone." Brennan answered.

"But isn't also crazy to let that same guy go on killing?' Jesse snapped back, not bothering to turn around.

"You're not the only one who can stop him!" Shalimar yelled.

"No, but I'm the only one who lived!" Jesse retorted as he spun around to face her.

An uncomfortable silence fell on the three teammates as Jesse and Shalimar seemed to be speaking without words. Finally both looked exhausted and slumped in there spots.

"Shalimar, I'm going no matter what you say. I'd rather not do it alone but I will," Jesse finally said, breaking the silence. The look on his face was not one of defiance, but one of need brought on by pain. His blue eyes seemed to scream abused puppy and his whole body seemed to scream help me. It was impossible to say no to him.

"Adam's coming back in three days, and that's how long you have. After that, it's Adam's call. But I swear to god if you go off on your own I'm calling him home early and having him lock you in your room," Shalimar declared, giving in. And just like that the tension in the room was gone.

"Thank you," Jesse said sincerely.

"Yeah well, you just looked to damn cute," Shal mumbled as she stood and closed the distance between her and Jess, wrapping her arms around him securely and hugging him tightly.

Brennan breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the two, glad that their fight was over. But curiosity was also eating away at him at what sparked the fight and what Jesse meant by; "I'm the only one who lived!" Whatever it was it couldn't be good

"Ummm…guys, I hate to interrupt, but I'm lost," Brennan said once the two had parted.

Both of them gave him identical looks and he felt like he should crawl back into a hole, but he didn't flinch. Instead, he matched their blank looks with one of his own.

"We need all the back up we can get Jess," Shal finally said.

Jesse shock his head and sighed, "Then you tell him." With that he walked away, headed for his room.

Once he was gone, Brennan turned to Shalimar and asked, "What am I missing?"

Instead of answering, Shalimar pointed to the computer screen that Jesse had been working on. There were a serious of articles on the screen with headlines that ranged from, "A New Killer," to "Has He Returned?"

Brennan felt a knot form in his stomach as he read the articles that depicted the abduction, rape, murder, and in some cases, torture of men ranging from twenty to thirty. The stories covered a span of two years, give or take, with a ten month gap from the last killing to the most recent one.

As he read, Brennan was reminded of the fear that had gripped the street when the news of the killer had spread. In fact, he knew one of the victims. But what this had to do with Jesse was beyond him. Shalimar sensed as much.

"It took Adam one crime scene photo to figure out it was a feral responsible for the killing. More specifically a snake feral. At the time, my powers were on the fritz so it was Jesse who did most of the investigation work.

He found a girl, Kelly, who had witnessed the murders and managed to convince her to take him to the place. What we didn't know was that was where he was. He attacked Jesse and Kelly and before Jesse could react, he had ripped out Kelly's throat and paralyzed Jesse.

By the time I had gotten there he was done with Jess and had left. Jesse was barely breathing…I got him home as fast as I could…we almost lost him. He was sick for almost a month afterwards. I guess that's when Adam decided we needed a bigger team cause it was just three months before you and Emma joined."

Brennan was speechless for a long time after Shalimar finished. Suddenly a lot of things made sense to him. "And now he's back so Jesse wants to stop him?"

"Can you blame him?"

Brennan didn't have to think about it, "Not at all. Count me in."