For disclaimers, please see Chapter 1.

Author's Notes:

So, it's been a long time since I posted. Unfortunately, something from the WB's Supernatural ate my muse. It's now haunting me with beautiful images of Dean and Sam (sigh). I've tried to write this chapter at least a dozen times without success. So, I'm just going to force my way through and hope that my muse is somehow resurrected over here in MutantX land.

In other words, this'll probably suck. You've been warned.

Also, things from the last chapter:

Kyle MacLachlan in Dune. Go to IMDB dot com, and search for him. Ignore the goofy pic of him on his page, and instead click on photos. Look at the third one down, from Dune... with his chest partially exposed. Then remember that it was taken in 1983! Very, very hot for 1983, especially when everyone else looked like a big dork. It was the 80's for god's sake.

Oh...the lambskin condom reference… Latex would have dampened/blocked the electrical current, so I couldn't go there, but bareback and Brennan don't mix (unless it's with Jesse). For reference though, lambskin is not effective against STD transmissions. Be safe.

Brennan eased his bike off the road, sliding in behind some trees. He turned off the engine and hopped off, then walked out to the road, looking back at his bike. After checking several angles, he felt satisfied that no one would spot his bike if they drove by. In this desolate area, the chances of that happening seemed slim, but he preferred not to take a chance with his baby.

He headed back to his bike and grabbed his duffel and his sleeping bag and then turned to head deeper into the trees and farther up the mountain.

"What should we do now?" Emma asked.

"I'm not sure. Adam won't stay gone forever, and we haven't uncovered anything big enough to explain wiping our memories."

"Nothing can explain that," Shalimar said firmly. "Our lives are our own."

"True enough," Jesse replied. "But I mean, why would he want to hide the fact that I'm more powerful? Just think of all the things I could have done on missions… the people I could have saved."

"Maybe it didn't have anything to do with your powers." Emma stood up from her chair and paced the room. "Maybe it had something to do with you and Brennan?"

"You mean being gay?" Jesse paused, a darkness shadowing his eyes before he turned to look out the window he leaned against. "Or, at least me being gay."

Shalimar rolled her eyes. "Oh, believe me, Brennan's gay, too."

Both Emma and Jesse looked at her questioningly, and Shalimar flushed slightly and dropped her eyes. Jesse knew that look. "Spill."

Shalimar raised her eyes, sheepish. "Okay, but promise not to get mad?"

Jesse folded his arms over his chest. "I'm not promising anything," he said, before pausing thoughtfully. "Except, I do promise that if you don't come clean about this, I'll make your peek-a-boo nipples not so peek-a-boo."

Shalimar looked at him, confusion evident on her face. "I'll make 'em stick out permanently," he said, exasperated.

"You think you can do that?" Shalimar challenged, moving to the center of the room.

Jesse raised an eyebrow. "Wanna find out?" he asked, walking to stand in front of her.

Shalimar backed down, realizing he probably could do it. "Fine, brat. Maybe that's why Adam made you forget your powers. 'Cause you're a giant brat when you have them."

Emma raised her hands to her face, rubbing her temples. "That's enough!" Emma declared, a mental thunder echoing her words, silencing the other two mutants, who stared at her in shock. "I'm sick of this petty bickering. You aren't six years old anymore."

Jesse turned his head toward Shal and found her twisting to look at him. "What's her problem?" they asked at the same time, smiling.

Emma kept rubbing at her temples. "Ha. Ha. Very funny… Not." She dropped her hands back to her lap. "You're giving me a headache with your childish fighting over everything."

"Yeah, Jess. Stop it. You're giving Emma a headache." She pushed Jesse playfully.

Jesse, acting as if he had been mortally attacked, pushed her back. "Me? It's all you. You started it."

"I've had it!" Emma yelled. She pointed at Jesse. "You, Superboy! Have a seat." Jesse suddenly flew across the room and landed in a chair. He stared at her, bewildered, but Shalimar mocking him got his attention. He opened his mouth but couldn't speak, and he sat rigidly in the chair.

"Superboy! Ha! She called you…" and then Shalimar flew across the room to land in another chair.

"That's enough from you, too, Hell Cat." Emma stood and walked to the bar and poured herself a drink, and downed it one swallow. She poured herself another and turned to look at them. "Did you two always do this? Was it just spread out between me, Adam and Brennan? You're driving me crazy."

Emma downed the second shot and put the glass back on the counter, realizing that she could have been broadcasting her own frustration and making things worse between the two almost siblings. "Now, Jess, I realize you could probably do any number of things to me right now and there's not a thing I could do to stop you. But, I'm asking you, pleading with you actually, just to sit tight and let Shal tell her story. For my sanity, please."

She glanced at him and Jesse lost his stiff posture in the chair. He opened his mouth to say something, but Emma held up a finger. "Please, Jess."

Jesse conceded, closing his mouth and crossing his arms in the chair, obviously not happy, especially seeing that Shalimar's eyes were dancing with laughter, though she couldn't speak either.

"Don't think you are getting off easily here, missy," Emma said, and Shalimar sobered instantly. "You're gonna tell your story and that's it, okay? All I'm asking for is about 10 minutes without you two going at. This whole brother/sister messing with each other thing is old."

Shalimar relaxed in her chair as well. "Okay, fine. So I know Superboy's boyfriend…", Shalimar pointedly ignored the look of outrage on Jesse's face, but toned down her attitude after getting a mental shove from Emma, "is gay because… well… I tested him."

"Tested him how?" Emma asked.

"I, uh, came onto him."

Emma sent soothing waves to Jesse, which helped his eyes return back into their sockets. "When?" he whispered.

"It was a few days after you brought him here for the first time. I remembered earlier, when you described how I grabbed his balls. It made me remember other… uh… things."

Emma reached out to quell the anger coming from Jesse, but found it strangely absent. She realized this had played into his fears, crushing him rather than angering him.

"I wanted to make sure he wasn't playing you. Think about it, you came home with this guy, a guy you had fallen in complete love with in the space of a couple of hours and were calling him your boyfriend. A guy who you admitted was a thief and now suddenly you wanted him to join the team. What was I supposed to think? It sounded crazy. It still does, actually. I just didn't want you to get hurt."

"What did you do, Shal?" Emma asked the question. Jesse stayed silent in his chair, broken.

"A few days after Brennan got here, Jesse was down in the lab with Adam doing some tests. Brennan was in the shower." Shalimar paused and swallowed nervously. "So, I slipped into the bathroom and took off my clothes and got into the shower with him."

Shalimar stared at Jesse's down-turned head, wishing she could see his eyes. "I stepped up behind him and ran my hand down his back. He thought I was you," she whispered. "So, I cupped his ass, and then reached around and grabbed other things." She swallowed again. "He knew as soon as I stroked him that I wasn't you, said my hand was too small. He pushed my hand away and spun around. He asked me what the hell I was doing."

"I told him to hush, and to just go with it. I pressed myself up against him, confident that I could expose him for what he was… a fraud. He told me to stop, but I ground my breasts against him, and tried to kiss him."

"Instead, he pushed me away and told me to get the hell out. I tried a couple more times, but he kept pushing me away. Finally, he grabbed me and pushed me up against the shower wall, and I thought ,'Yes! Got him!', but instead all he did was move around me and get out of the shower. He wrapped a towel around himself and left."

"So, you see, Jess? That settles it," Emma soothed.

"That's not all. He wasn't even… uh… excited. He didn't react at all. And trust me, any guy even remotely straight would have…uh… stood up and took notice."

"'Cause it was you, right?" Emma smirked.

"Of course. Plus, I was naked. I mean, come on."

Emma walked over and squeezed into the chair with Jesse, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm convinced, Jess. Just give Brennan some time to figure it out."

"Are we good, Jess?" Shalimar asked

Jesse nodded, his heart too heavy to speak.

Brennan concentrated on the pain racing beneath his skin, and tried to direct it towards his fingertips, firing another blast of electricity high into the sky.

The concussive wave from the blast threw him back against a tree. He stood up, groaning.

The forces within him grew at a steady rate, along with the pain, and he knew they would eventually overwhelm him. He didn't have Jesse at his side, his hands and arms and body draining away the pain and wild energy.

Jesse.

Brennan forced the young man from his mind again, but only moments past before images rose up again. Jesse's light hair and pale skin against his own darker colors.

He let out a growl and fired another blast up into the sky and found himself forced down upon the ground, almost knocking himself out. Lying there for a moment, his hand went to his pocket and found the copper box. He considered opening it and calling for help, hoping that the copper had protected it from his new electromagnetic pulses, which would normally fry the sensitive circuitry.

Instead, he pulled himself to his feet once again. "I can do this. I just have to hold it together, and I'll get control, just like always."

Thoughts of Jesse didn't help. It seemed like the more he tried the harder it became to ignore them. He saw Jesse laughing as he pulled thong underwear out of box, wrapping paper scattered around him. "You honestly expect me to wear these, Bren?" he laughed.

A wave of pain broke the image, and another replaced it as it ebbed. Jesse lying on top of him, his own legs spread as Jesse filled him. "I love you," Jesse whispered in his ear. "I love you."

Another crest of pain, and Brennan saw Jesse spread out next to him on his bed, the young man's arms and legs everywhere. Brennan saw his hand reaching out to push Jesse's bangs away from his face, his fingers running through the sex-messed hair. "I love you, too, Jess," he whispered.

The image shifted and Brennan saw himself holding a crying Jesse, his face streaked with tears. "We'll get through this, Jesse, okay? We'll get through this together."

Faced with image after image, Brennan could no longer deny his relationship with Jesse, or the feelings he had for him. I'm in love with Jesse, he thought, and knew it to be trueDespite the pain, Brennan found a small amount of joy.

Accepting his feelings for Jesse unlocked the door within, and memories came pouring out, faster than he could understand. However, pain came crashing down upon him once again, and thought was nearly impossible.

Like he had accepted his love for Jesse, Brennan decided to accept the pain rather than rail against it.

The pain swallowed him whole.

Jesse jerked awake from his fitful sleep at the sound of the alarm blaring through Sanctuary. He jumped out of bed and ran to the control room, materializing clothing for himself as he phased through walls, taking the shortest route possible. Dropping through the floor above, he landed in the control room and took a seat in the one of the recumbent chairs.

His fingers shot across the keyboard and the claxon ended. Next a satellite image appeared on the screen, and Jesse worked on narrowing the focus when Shalimar and Emma entered.

"What's going on, Jesse?"

"An electromagnetic pulse was just detected, up in the mountains..." Jesse's breath hitched as he broke off.

Shalimar and Emma inhaled sharply, knowing what that might mean.

Jesse continued pressing keys, shifting the satellite image and then switching to a news feed.

"Jesse?"

A newscaster's voice came across the speakers. "With late breaking news, this is Tricia Takanowa. Just minutes ago, it appears that a terrorist device has been detonated somewhere in the mountains to the north. An EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, is designed to take out electronics, rendering them useless. Just a moment, please. The White House has just issued a statement that they believe this to be an Al Qaeda plot that has backfired. We are at threat level red, indicating that we are at severe risk of additional attacks…"

Jesse turned off the broadcast. "Brennan."

"We'll go look for him, Jess. We'll find him," Shal encouraged.

"But what if…" Jesse couldn't finish.

"Guys," Emma breathed. "This just got a whole lot worse. This isn't just us anymore."

Shalimar nodded. "We need Adam."

End Part 15
02/20/2005