Author's Note : Short but effective. Enjoy! Very very minor alteration (one word!) to this chapter in order to make true a setence I'm using later...

Scene Eight

Mac was with Adam, working on the locations of several cell phones that the X-Men knew to have belonged to carious members of the Brotherhood of Mutants, but his mind wasn't really on the job. He was, in fact, considering the awkwardness of working with telepaths. It was his own thoughts running away with him that had caused the argument with Vixen... the name definitely suited her. She could definitely be a spitfire... Mac wrenched his thoughts away from that for fear she might still be listening in. Having given her permission to run over his current thoughts – she had promised not to delve into his memories, which Mac had appreciated but not quite trusted at the time – had definitely been a mistake on his part, although he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop her. The worst thing, he decided, was thinking about the awkwardness of working with telepaths as if it was completely normal...

The object of Mac's thoughts was on her cell down the corridor. She was smiling, almost coyly, murmuring words that he couldn't hear, but from the look on her face, he could guess that she was warning someone close – very close – to her to be careful. Mac felt a flare of jealousy that surprised him.

"Boss?" Adam's voice brought Mac back to the job at hand. He knew that Adam would barely have noticed his lack of input, in fact the young CSI usually preferred Mac to be hands off when he was working his computers.

"Yeah."

"Four of the nine cell phones are inactive, I can't activate them remotely. Four of the other five are located in this district. The fifth is heading in that direction at walking pace. I reckon it's about 30 minutes distance."

"Thanks Adam." Mac headed out of the AV lab to beckon to Ilehana. She spoke a few more words into the phone, ended the call and slipped the phone into her pocket. She squared her shoulders, as if preparing for a fight and headed towards him. He offered her the chance to precede him back into the AV lab, which she did with a little grace.

Adam, trying not to notice the tension between the beautiful woman and his boss, gave her the GPS co-ordinates and showed her the area on the big screen. He watched her as she approached it, nodding appreciatively. She murmured something along the lines of it being "far enough from human habitation" and "easily defendable". Adam shot a glance over at his boss, who was also watching their guest with a strange but unreadable expression on his face.

"Time to go." Ilehana sent Adam a suggestion, and the CSI suddenly found it necessary to be elsewhere. "Thank you, Detective. We appreciate the help."

"Sure." Mac wasn't sure what else to say. "You'll let me know how this goes down?"

"My father will let you know, I'm sure."

Mac bit his tongue and stopped himself asking her to be the one to tell him. What was it with this woman? She gave him a look that was as unreadable as his own had been to Adam, only her eyes were suddenly flaring with what Mac could only describe as bloodlust. She smiled at that, a predatory smile that only agreed with the thought.

I'm a predator, Mac, hunting's what I do best.

"Be careful, Ilehana."

I will. The words were somewhere between a growl and a purr as she passed by him and left the CSI building. Mac watched her leave the labs by the elevator and made a sudden decision. He strode down the corridor, a purposefulness to his walk that sent his lab technicians scurrying out of his path. Mac pulled his cell from his pocket and dialled Adam.

"Adam, get your ass back to the AV lab, I need your help with something."