Welcome to my Hell, part 2.

After having an hour to go over recent events, Brennan felt the erg to talk to Jesse. So he went looking for the Molecular. He searched his room, the kitchen, the control room, the lab, and the rec. room before finding him in the Dojo. The sight before him made his groin tighten; uncomfortably tight.

Jesse was clad only in sweat pants and had a shine of sweet highlighting his finely toned body as he aggressively worked of some pent up rage. The holograms were no match for him, falling one by one, even though Brennan could tell it was one of the more advance simulation that the computer had. What's more, it was all hand to hand, no powers, mo weapons, just skin and bone. That information only made Brennan wait until Jesse was finished before he said anything. If Jesse was pissed enough to do that much damage then the last thing he wanted was that rage directed at him. But as along as he was there, he could at least enjoy the show.

Jesse spent another twenty minutes before he reached his limits. There was a moment there that Brennan feared he'd have to intervene as he watched the molecular stagger around, but Jesse knew his limits. As he crumbled to the floor, breathless he called "simulation end," and just like that the holograms were gone. Another minute passed before Jesse called out to Brennan, "Did you want the holograms?"

Brennan smiled bashfully, Jesse had known he was there the whole time, so much for street stealth. "No, I wanted to talk. I figured I'd wait until you were finished."

Jesse sat up properly and faced Brennan, the same angel look on his face that Brennan was quickly learning was a mask the blond wore. "What about?"

Brennan licked his lips, trying to buy time; there was just no good way to ask about how you survived being rapped and strangled. Thankfully Jesse caught on quickly to Brennan thoughts and answered the unasked questions.

"I barely remember what he did. My kind of molecular has this strange thing about being touched, it over power's our senses. Because our bodies are so in tuned to our molecules and thus our nervous, we feel everything at least ten times stronger. So when he grabbed me…" he Jesse took a breath and Brennan could see him try to school his face back into that pristine angel look and he wondered at it. How could anyone look so perfect, so innocent, when they talked about something so vile? He didn't have long to wonder before Jess continued.

"When he touched me my body was already worked up from…from the initial attack that it didn't take much to push me over the edge. The rape I don't remember. As for when he strangled me…I phased. I felt him reach for my neck and so followed my first impulse which was to phase. That was what caused the biggest problem; my lungs were to shocked to handle it and I could pull myself back together quick enough. I was barely breathing because I was still semi-phased."

There was long silence as Brennan took in what Jesse said. Jesse sat there, his legs pulled to his chest, head resting on his knees, watching the man in front of him. For the last few months Brennan had been the cause of his wet dreams, and the only reason he hadn't acted on any of his feelings was the memory of being helpless. His mind may not remember what took place that night, but his subconscious defiantly did and every now and then it gave him a kick in the ass to remember. Now though, with the truth all laid out there for Brennan to examine and do with as he please, now that he could finally admit it, maybe his subconscious could give it a rest.

"The last reported victim," Brennan started carefully, brining Jesse back to the present time, "Was a friend of mine…."

"Kenny 'Slip' White?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, little Slip…guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know his name," Brennan confirmed, "After all, you investigated everything."

"Kenny was one of his favorites," Jesse said, in a voice just above a whisper, "you could tell because of what he did…"

Brennan shivered visibly. He remembered the night the police came to him with pictures of what his friend's last few days of life had been like. "Kenny and I grew up together, we came from the same kind of house, the same hard life, the same streets, hell we even stole together; I guess you could say we were brothers. I knew Kenny was gay, and hell it's not like I'm a straight edge ether, but Kenny was younger then me and I worried about the kind of guys he went with. I use to go to bars and clubs with him, I wanted to make sure he was safe. See how well that worked out?"

Brennan sighed and, like Jesse, tried to school his face back into that bad boy image he loved to portray. "I was the last one to be seen with Kenny and the police came to question me."

"I know," Jesse piped in, "It was how we first heard about you. I…ummm…I had bugged the lead detective on the case, and when ever he went to interview someone I guess you could say I went a long."

Brennan raised his eyebrows in amusement; some how he wasn't surprised. "Anyways," he continued, "I remember what they told me about how he died, and I remember the pictures of his body…I think I nearly lost it there. I wanted to find the bastard and rip him apart. It wasn't until that moment that anything really had meaning to me. It wasn't until losing Kenny that I really started to care about people…"

Jesse nodded, he understood exactly what Brennan was saying. "The most vivid memory I have of that night was when he killed Kelly. It was like everything slowed down and I saw it happen frame by frame. First Kelly was standing right in front of me, and she was nervous, and terrified. She was just this little homeless girl, a runaway new mutant. She was a empath and I had convinced to trust me. I convinced her that I could keep her safe; that I could protect her and there she was in his arms. She sensed him before he grabbed her, I saw her turn to look behind her just a moment before he grabbed her. I saw his hand come whipping out of the shadows. I saw his other arm wrap around her waist and draw her in. He snapped her neck and then I saw his teeth tare into her throat and she fell. She just crumpled to the floor, her eyes staring up at me so confused and betrayed…It was like it took hours for him to kill her but I couldn't move," Jesse said, his body shaking as the power of the memories took hold. And this time his angel face façade was gone; present now was every ounce of pain, fear, anger, and guilt that had been filling him since that night.

Brennan felt himself look away, the raw emotion evident in Jesse to painful for him to handle. As if on automatic, he closed the distance between the younger man and himself, and drew Jesse into his arms. Much to his relief and surprise, Jesse allowed him, at least until the shaking stopped. "Sorry," Jesse mumbled as Brennan let him pull away.

"About what?" Brennan shrugged off.

Jesse smiled slightly and shook his head, "I guess it was then that I figured out life was real and a computer screen wasn't."

"Yet you still spend hours a day in front of one," Shalimar called from the room's entrance way causing Brennan to jump, but Jesse didn't flinch.

"You've just been waiting for months for this haven't you?" Jesse asked as he watched his sister come to them.

"Uh huh," shed nodded, her blond hair bobbing in her face as she took a seat next to him and wrapped her arms protectively around his frame. "I use to wish you'd finally talk to me, but Brennan's just as good. Besides, maybe now you two can get off your ass and do something about the freaking sexual tension. It's been bugging the hell out of Emma and me. In fact, I think it's gotten so bad that Adam, lord of the clueless men, is starting to pick up in it."

"What?!" Brennan exclaimed over Jesse's burst of laughter. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Uh huh, then why are you turning red?' Shalimar asked, batting blue eyes at her friend.

Brennan bit his lip knowing it better not to argue with the feral and instead just watched the two 'siblings.' Jesse looked so young in Shal's arms, just resting against her a soft smile on his face, and Shalimar looked like a relaxed mother lion, aware of everything but focused on nothing. The two were obviously close, and obviously family and Brennan felt an erg to be a part of that. It was something that was so strong that it was more of a need then anything.

Without warning the feral grew tense and her eyes flashed gold. Jesse pulled away from her grip, sensing the change and turned to watch her. "What is it?" he asked.

"There's a beep…kind of like an alert beep not a incoming call beep," Shal answered knowing Jesse's next question would be what it sounded like.

"High pitched?" Jesse asked with a sigh. He gave another sigh when Shal nodded and moved to stand while explaining, "That the computer telling me that there's been a report of another murder that matches our guy's MO. I set up a search program with the specifics and set it to alert me whenever it found a match on law enforcement or media channels."

"In other words?" Shal asked, moving to follow her brother.

"He's struck again."

So now that I got that boreing relationship stuff out of the way, fore the moment anyways, now we can get into the good stuff...

...but you have to read (and reviwe? please.) to find out what happens to our three friends.

Rabies,

Tye.