On the tail end of his five mile run, Kyle felt great. The sun had just started to rise and the nightmare was a distant memory. Slowing his pace, he walked and opened the door to the warehouse for a training session with Foss. Foss was waiting for him in the middle of the large room.

He took a deep breath and found the smells familiar and oddly comforting.

Foss, never one to delay, said, "So how's your sense of smell?"

Kyle noticed his eyes were even more intense than usual. He smelled carefully hidden anger; he suspected Foss was almost always angry about something. Suddenly surprised he took another deep breath. He could smell Foss and his anger, but they didn't affect him! He could smell rat poison in the south-east corner of the building, an open cup of bleach inside Foss's office and a slice of fresh banana bread at the top of the climbing wall.

Without answering Foss, he ran and jumped half-way up the wall and hopped to the top in a matter of seconds. Grabbing the lightly buttered slice of banana bread, he took another breath before chomping down on a big portion. After he swallowed, "It's great!" Today was going great! As he polished off the slice, chewing it, savoring it with his enhanced senses, he realized there was too much sugar. He certainly didn't need piles of it to taste it!

He walked to the edge and jumped to the ground, landing with a cat's grace. There's a cup of bleach –" He faltered, took a few steps, and nearly fell to his knees. The gaping hole had suddenly returned, bigger than ever.

Foss was beside him in a matter of moments. "What's wrong?"

Shivers ran down his spine as he remembered his nightmare. It was nothing quite like that of course, but he'd thought he'd adjusted to the absence of his connection with Jessi. As his mentor ever since Adam had passed, Kyle trusted Foss implicitly. "It feels like physical pain, sadness, and anger in the lower part of my chest." When Foss didn't immediately reply, he continued, "It's lower than my heart, near the diaphragm."

"You've checked there's nothing physically wrong with you?" Foss seemed ever the practical type.

"Absolutely. There's no organ there and the tissue, blood vessels, muscles," he paused, thinking of a better way to summarize it, "everything's normal."

Silence surrounded them for a few seconds, though Kyle could feel Foss's concern behind the veiled anger. "Wait!" Foss exclaimed. "You know about the digestive system's nervous system?"

"Not a whole lot; only what the encyclopedia mentioned of it." He could however reason where Foss was going. "You don't mean that the secondary nervous system is developing feelings and that I'm feeling them?"

Surprise didn't register on Foss, whether by smell or on his face. Kyle admired how he could control himself at all times. It was likely the heavy military training he'd undertaken. "Do you have a better idea," asked Foss.

Kyle sat down on the concrete floor, ignoring its cool touch. He tried to probe into his chest cavity for any sign that something was wrong, or worse, that another of his body's systems was becoming enhanced with unforeseen complications. Try as he might, he couldn't focus on nerves specifically because they were too small. Perhaps that would have to be the next step, his next project, instead of focusing on touch. He held back a smile as he admitted to himself he'd been wary of enhancing his sense of touch. He could see dozens of pitfalls there, all of them worse than what his sense of smell had done to him thus far.

After another minute, he sighed and said, "Sorry I can't sense nerve endings."

"Yet." Foss looked into his eyes. "I didn't think you'd be able to smell the banana bread."

"Or the bleach in your office or the rat poison in the corner?" Kyle added with a smile, pointing.

Finally a small smile appeared on Foss's face. It promptly vanished as he turned serious. The anger seemed to edge closer to the forefront of his senses. "I forced Jessi to cut the connection."

Kyle's brow furrowed. He'd guessed as much. "Why?"

"It was necessary; she was dependent on whatever sensations you two share through it."

"What do you mean?" Kyle asked.

Foss's eyes narrowed. "Don't you feel each other's emotions or something?"

"No, not normally…" He found it wasn't true at all. He now thought he knew why it had been done. The primal desire he'd smelled at the warehouse had belonged to Jessi – and it had been because of his passionate embrace with Amanda. No wonder they'd made the decision! He was just happy that she'd been able to sever it.

Kyle started anew, "What if what I'm feeling are her raw emotions, from another part of our connection?"

Foss followed his train of thought. "She cut only one side of it? She can't feel you but you can feel her?" He paused. "That makes sense." The anger seemed to draw back again. Kyle wouldn't ask why; besides, he had a good idea what the answer was.

It was only then Kyle realized he had slept beside Jessi and not been crazed by her scent. Probably his nightmare was the reason: he often needed emotional triggers to perform the feats he wouldn't be able to do otherwise. His nightmare had been one long emotional trigger; his mind had forced him to watch the horrific mess to make him focus on filtering his sense of smell.

That was something he could live with.

As they stood to start his training for the morning, he feigned a casual tone – it sounded so fake to him – and said, "Psychology and Sociology books?"

Foss, as always, replied instantly. "Jessi's training."

Foss's fist came flying toward his face. He hadn't expected the change. Without thinking he gracefully avoided the strike by a quarter inch and had his own fist in Foss's face before he'd even had the chance to strike again. His other hand had immobilized Foss's other arm and his legs prevented Foss from having a reasonable chance to attack with a kick.

Foss 's shoulders relaxed. "You win."

***

Jessi's eyes opened. For the briefest moment she wondered why she wasn't in her room but she then remembered she'd woken up when she'd heard him moan in his sleep. Knowing he was having another nightmare, she'd gone down and attempted to bring him out. His mind had refused to let her in, but she had remained and had fallen asleep beside his tub, on the floor. His nightmares were infrequent at best but when he had them they were almost always intense. And prolonged.

The fact she woke in his tub didn't surprise her. While she didn't find the tub quite as comfortable as Kyle did but it certainly made her feel safe.

She could stop her nightmares without difficulty, force her mind to change the direction of the dream if she didn't like it. When she was having a particularly bad day, she often went to sleep early to experience a dream that would make her feel better.

She idly wondered why Kyle couldn't do the same. She assumed he could, maybe it was due to the difference in their personalities. She was aggressive and he was passive. She demanded control while he controlled only himself.

Noticing the sheer garment she was wearing, she suddenly became self conscious. She listened intently and marked the locations of family members. The risk of getting caught barely dressed in Kyle's room made her smile. She felt the adrenaline kick in as she carefully opened Kyle's bedroom door. She waited several moments then bolted down the hall and up the stairs to her bedroom in mere seconds.

With the door firmly closed behind her she reveled in the joy she felt. Considering everyone had been awake, it had been a thrilling few seconds. She sobered a few minutes later, after she had dressed. It still felt so strange not feeling Kyle inside her.

"Declan," she whispered to no one in particular.