For disclaimers, please see Chapter 1.
Author's Notes:
So... it's been years since I last did anything with this story. I kept thinking "I'll come back to it...someday" Apparently today is finally someday. I am back trying to pick up the threads to see if I can actually reach the end. I no longer have the plot outline I made for the story, so I'm winging it from what I can remember.
Wish me luck, and keep your expectations low.
Shalimar streaked through the trees and brush, desperate to reunite with her team. Her best way to help them now was to get to the Helix and prep for departure.
Running at full speed, she burst into the clearing where she and the others had left the jet and scrambled to a halt, shocked the find the Helix uncloaked. With investigators swarming the area, this could mean detection any minute, if they hadn't already been spotted.
Realizing she'd have to risk further possible discovery, Shalimar darted over to the access panel along the side of the craft. She needed to get inside and get the Helix cloaked immediately. Once in position, she shifted back to her human form and reached out to key in her access code when the panel suddenly disappeared, along with the rest of the jet.
She whipped around, scanning the tree line, wondering what had triggered the change in the Helix. Her eyes flared bright yellow as she used her feral vision to spot the threat. Finding nothing, she turned back around to the Helix, a slight growl escaping her lips upon seeing the Helix was perfectly visible again.
Is the freakin' cloak shorting out or what? she wondered.
Reaching out for the panel again, she relaxed her feral vision and was startled when the Helix disappeared again. Shalimar frowned at first, and then her eyes widened slightly, right before switching to their bright yellow coloring. As she had guessed, the Helix appeared again
Tucking away the knowledge that her feral vision was now immune to cloaking, Shalimar punched in the access code, made much simpler now that she could see the damn access panel, and then jumped inside.
Emma and Jesse, pushing a sleeping Brennan, made their way underground towards Shalimar and the Helix.
"Shal is on-board and is starting up the engine," Emma told Jesse, breaking the silence that had settled over them for several minutes.
Jesse's head shifted minutely, the barest of nods.
"So, are you going to tell me what's happening in that head of yours, or do I have to go look for myself?" Emma chided.
Jesse's eyes flicked to her briefly then away again. "I'm just trying to sort things out, that's all."
Emma knew this wasn't about Brennan, not after the emotions she had felt coming from them when they were reunited. "Are you wondering about Adam?"
Jesse's nod was clearer this time. "There are just so many things I don't understand. Why would he do all of this? Why would my grandmother help him do this to me? It just doesn't make any sense. There's something I'm missing here, and I think Brennan may know some of it. You saw the way he was acting earlier. What was he thinking? Do you know?"
Emma shook her head in response. "I'm sorry, Jess. I can tell you he was frightened, very frightened. But considering how tired and weak he was, I didn't want to take any chances considering I don't really know my own strength at the moment." Despite her talk about her strength, Emma's voice resonated with exhaustion. She hadn't gotten much sleep beforehand, between the crap they'd gone through, the headaches, just everything. "I'm working on keeping all of you out unless I absolutely have to do something."
"I understand, Em. And I owe you everything. I never would have found Bren without your help." Jesse reached down and gently rubbed Brennan's shoulder. "I owe you everything."
Emma smiled. "Well, you saved my life as well. And Shal's. If you hadn't stabilized our genes, we probably would have died. So I think we can call it even." Emma threw her arm around Jesse's shoulders, squeezing gently. "Besides, Superboy needs his sidekick."
"I," Brennan said sleepily, roused from sleep by their conversation, "am NOT a sidekick."
Jesse brightened at Brennan's voice, a smile filling his face as he leaned around the wheelchair to kiss Brennan briefly. "Welcome back."
Emma, never one to be discouraged once she'd found an emotional button, couldn't leave it alone. "Well, you'll need a name, obviously. SuperBoy and.... um..... Oh! I know! Boo Boo Bear!"
Jesse groaned and Brennan sputtered. Emma laughed mercilessly. "Yes," she said, "SuperBoy and Boo Boo Bear will do nicely."
Minutes later, looking out the front window of the Helix, Shal saw a hole open up in the ground, and then moments later, her teammates rose up from it, like an underground elevator had pushed them up. Once on the surface, the ground beneath their feet looked exactly as it had beforehand.
Brennan had grown stronger, but still needed a little help getting inside and buckled into his seat. Once settled, the Helix rose into the air, hovering.
"Jesse? Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Oh. Sorry." Down on the ground, the wheelchair winked out of existence. .
As the four emerged into Sanctuary they all felt the difference. Sanctuary no longer felt like home.
"I just want to sleep for a week," Brennan said, headed towards his bedroom. "You wanna join me?" he asked Jesse.
Jesse hesitated and then shook his head. "I need to deal with Adam."
"He can wait until tomorrow, or even the next day," Emma interjected. "We could all use some rest. Something tells me we're not off the roller coaster yet, but I don't think we can take it right now."
Jesse still waffled. "But... what if he finds a way in? I don't want to risk it. Risk us."
Shal stepped to his side, putting her hand to the side of Jesse's face. "Tell you what. You and Brennan go grab some sleep. Emma, you too – you all look beat, but the cat in me wouldn't mind prowling around a bit. I'll keep watch while you guys rest."
Jesse thought about it for a moment, and then smiled softly. "Thanks, Shal. I thought I would be too worried to sleep, but I think knowing that you are out here, guarding us – well, what better protection could we have?"
Shalimar visibly preened under the praise. "You better believe it. Now get to bed, all of you."
In Brennan's room, he and Jesse spooned on the bed. Brennan kissed Jesse softly and then whispered. "We've got so much to catch up on."
Jesse responded with another kiss, one that was disrupted by Brennan yawning. "Bored with me already?" Jesse smirked.
"Sorry, babe. Never tire of you, but am so tired," he answered, yawning again.
Jesse warmed at Brennan calling him 'babe', though he never thought he'd be one of those people... the pet name people, but apparently he was. "Don't worry about it, sexy. You can make it up to me later."
"Sexy, huh?"
"Bren, even if they put sex on a stick, wrapped it in bacon, deep fried it and dipped it in ranch dressing, it still wouldn't come close to you." Jesse stilled, taking in the amused expression on Brennan's face. "What?"
Brennan pressed a kiss to his lover's lips. "You are a weird guy, Jesse Kilmartin, and I love you more than you know."
Jesse smiled. "I love you, too. Now get some rest."
Shalimar checked the security system for at least the tenth time. No sign of intrusion had been detected, either physically or through the data network. Adam seemed to know that it was time to keep his distance.
She sat back in her chair and thought about the freedom of running through the woods – the power, the agility, the speed. "Well, I need to patrol the perimeter anyway," she said to the empty room. "Why not?"
She quickly stripped out of her clothes, thinking that she'd have to come up with some easy-off outfit to wear on missions so that she could transform easily. "Easy-off outfit for work," she giggled, "that sounds all kinds of wrong."
Deciding that the more deadly claws that came with a larger cat form might be too damaging on the floors, Shal decided that her house cat shape was more suitable. As she thought about it, she realized a regular cat was perfect for surveillance anyway. Who'd suspect the pretty kitty?
Once feline, she took a moment for proper grooming, as any cat would, and then bounded out of the room.
Patrol over, she took a few minutes to play, dashing from place to place, jumping from level to level, enjoying her four-footed-self immensely. Turning the Sanctuary into her own personal race track, she sped through the halls, zipping around corners, bouncing off walls when needed.
In one of those hallways, at a right turn, she expected to see only wall, but instead saw a door – a door that shouldn't be there. An access panel perched next to the door. Considering that there were only a few areas of Sanctuary that required access codes once inside, Shal knew she'd never seen this one before.
Her body quickly shifted back to human and the door and access panel vanished, as she expected. Wondering what other cloaked items she might find, she sped off in cat form once again, this time with a mission.
Brennan rolled over, ignoring the knocking on the door.
"Guys? Come on. Time to get up!"
"Go away, Shal!" Jesse called back, snuggling closer to his lover's back and pulling a pillow over his head to drown out her voice.
This is important, Jess. Shal's found something.
"That's not fair, Em!"
Well, if you want us to check out the secret room without you...
"Secret room?"
"Huh?" Brennan asked, sleepily.
"Em says Shal found a secret room and they want us to check it out with them," Jesse explained, now eager to get up, tugging on Brennan's shoulder. "We've got to get up!"
Brennan groaned.
"Come on, Bren. Maybe we'll finally get some answers."
--10/28/09