I'm back. And this is my new story. Its a sequel to Golddigger so you might want to read that one first because the plots are linked and you might want to catch up. And while you're at it you could review Golddigger and make me uber happy.
Anyway, moving on. I hope you all enjoy this fanfiction. I'm having a lot of fun writing it so obviously it would be very much appreciated if you would take a few minutes to review and say something nice or not so nice depending on how you feel.
Disclaimer: none of the Mutant X characters belong to me. The original characters (and any Mutant X fan should know them when they come along) do but I am happy to hire them out for a small fee.
And with no further ado, enjoy.
***
'Well, well. We thought you guys had fallen off the edge of the world.'
Shalimar smiled as she walked down the metal stairs towards the main room of the safehouse. It was their third one of the day and they had received the same reactions from each. Everyone had assumed that there were bigger problems that the team had to deal with but that didn't mean they were all above a little good natured teasing.
'Hello to you too,' Shalimar replied with a smirk.
'How you guys doing?' Brennan said as he closed the door behind him and followed Shalimar down the stairs.
'We're doing okay. You wanna check out the records?' replied a tall blonde haired man. He strolled towards the table in the corner of the room. It held a computer and he picked up a disk which he then handed to Shalimar.
'Thanks Glenn,' she said.
'So what happened to you guys?' said a redhead from the sofa.
'We got a little sidetracked,' Brennan said, hesitantly. He didn't want them to know the whole story about how they had quite simply neglected their jobs but he figured they had to know about the Dominion sometime. They had been handing out warnings in all the other safehouses that if anyone showed up claiming to be from a group affiliated with Mutant X that they were to withhold judgment till they talked to the team. They couldn't risk anymore innocent new mutants being hurt at the hands of the Dominion.
After they had given the warning they said their goodbyes and walked, with the disk out of the building.
'So, that went okay?' Shalimar said tentatively as they walked down the street towards the car they had decided to bring instead of the Helix.
'Yeah,' Brennan answered. 'They don't seem to hate us too much.'
Shalimar laughed as she pulled the keys out of her back pocket.
'Hand them over,' Brennan said as they reached the car.
'Excuse me?'
'You drove from Sanctuary to all the over safehouses and we agreed that to massage my extremely sore male ego at being driven around by a woman we would let me drive back to Sanctuary,' Brennan replied as he leant against the car door.
'Who said we were going back to Sanctuary?' Shalimar said with a smirk as she shoved Brennan out of the way of the driver side door with her hip. She stuck the key in the lock and pulled the door open before swiftly sliding onto the seat.
'Shal, its getting dark. Where else are we going to go other than back to Sanctuary?'
She raised her eyebrows as she yanked the door closed behind her and started the engine. Brennan jogged round to the passenger side, the fear that he would be left behind not completely unfounded.
***
The tapping stopped momentarily as Jesse took a gulp of his coffee before spitting it back into the mug as he realised that it was stone cold. Lexa looked over at him, her eyebrows raised. She saw his brow furrowed as he tried to work out how long he had been working. After the events of the day before the team had all been eager to get to work and Jesse and Lexa had done a little that night and had started early that morning after getting some rest. They had all slept easier that night than they had done in a long time. Their respective burdens had been lifted and Lexa, more so than any of the others felt pure relief in her heart. She hadn't expected to. Sheer terror was one of the emotions she predicted she would experience the minute she turned out the light, but she had lain back on her bed and had felt free at last. It had been a long time coming but it was worth every second.
'You want another cup?' she asked Jesse quietly. They hadn't been pushing themselves too hard so far. They were already ahead in terms of having the inside scoop on the Dominion. The figured they could both take their time in putting all the data together. The Dominion clearly weren't going anywhere.
'You know what?' Jesse replied, turning in his chair.
'What?' Lexa answered from her chair.
'I think I would much rather go to bed,' Jesse said with a smirk.
'Really?' Lexa replied, her smile getting wider. 'Well, I personally think we should really get cracking on this assignment here because Brennan and Shalimar are relying on us to do our job...' She squealed as Jesse walked over to her and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. He carried her out of the lab in the direction of his bedroom.
'I'm upside down,' Lexa shouted, laughter evident in her voice.
'I got that,' Jesse said, as he kicked open his door and walked in, ducking slightly to avoid bumping Lexa's head against the doorframe.
She let out another squeal as Jesse dropped her onto the bed. Her head hit the pillow and she closed her eyes as she felt the blood rush from her head to the rest of her body. She opened her eyes as she felt Jesse's weight on top of her and smiled as she saw his sparkling blue eyes looking into her own.
'I like this plan,' she whispered before her mouth was caught by Jesse's in a kiss which left her gasping for air.
***
The beat of the music boomed through the club and Brennan had to squint as one of the flashing lights flicked across his face, straight into his eyes. He looked around him at the packed club. Shalimar had insisted that they take some time out to relax and after the events of the previous few days he wasn't complaining. Plus, any excuse to watch Shalimar dance was cool by him. He felt the grip of her hand on his tighten as they moved through the people.
'You wanna dance with me?' she said as she looked over her shoulder at him. She knew the answer would be no. It always was but she thought she would ask anyway, try and entice him with her puppy dog eyes.
'You want a drink?' Brennan said with a smirk.
'That's a no then?'
'Your usual?'
'Yeah,' they both replied simultaneously as they split up, each going their separate ways, Shalimar to dance her tension away, Brennan to watch.
She could sense everything in the club. It was almost like she could feel everyone around her through every single one of her senses. From the information she was getting she could paint pictures in her head, pretty accurate ones at that of everyone and what they ere doing. It was all about how the music and lights bounced off of the people. It had confused the hell out of her the first time it had happened. She hadn't been expecting it and it had scared her. She remembered running away from any sign of civilisation. She had hid out for a while but had eventually realised she couldn't stay hidden for the rest of her life. And gradually she had learnt to adapt her skill to fit in with her surroundings. She had taught herself, with the help of Adam how to tune it all out so she could live like a normal person most of the time. She would use it when she needed to find someone but other than that she could have it as background music to her life. It was like a soundtrack, one which didn't impede the enjoyment of the movie.
She walked through the crowds to get to the middle of the crush of people. She liked the atmosphere within the club even at its busiest. She may have been a country girl at heart, loving the feeling of freedom that nature gave her but she could never stay away from the crowded cities for long.
'Two beers,' Brennan called out over the bar at the pretty brunette serving him. He turned to look at Shalimar. She was already lost to the world, in her own little place in time and space, letting the music wash over her already glowing body.
'Thanks,' Brennan said as he turned back round and handed the money over in exchange for the much needed drinks. He had been working hard all day, going from safehouse to safehouse, and they had both had to do a lot of talking.
He closed his eyes and was once again assaulted by one of the many images of Laura that seemed to be sticking with him. The scene that he and Shalimar had seen the day before was probably going to stay with them forever. Everytime he closed his eyes for an indefinite period of time he was hit with a flash of her. Sometimes they were pictures of her smiling or laughing or looking bemused at the tension between him and Shalimar. But more often than not they were snapshots of her mangled body. They were disturbing and Brennan knew that if he needed anyone at that point in time it was probably Emma. She would have been able to give him the serenity he needed. He hadn't slept well the night before and he didn't think he was going to sleep well that night either. It would take time, he knew that much, but he didn't know how many more images he could take.
He swigged at his bottle and felt the tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw the pretty brunette who had served him. She had come out from behind the bar and was smiling at him. He smirked as he looked at her. She leant into him.
'You wanna dance?' she said over the music.
'No, but my girlfriends on the dance floor so if you wanted to you could go dance with her,' he replied, hoping that she would get the message. The weird thing about it all was, he thought as he watched her walk away that he hadn't even been tempted. He had always known that his feelings for Shalimar were completely different to those he had ever had for any other woman. She was different. Their whole relationship was so much more intense but also so much more dangerous. The consequences were more far reaching, they were scarier and it was the reason why Shalimar and Brennan had steered clear of each other for so long.
'That for me?'
He turned and saw the blonde feral. She looked hot and he handed the drink over to her. He knew she was going to go back out onto the dance floor and that he probably wouldn't see her for the rest of the evening except for some swift glances which he would receive when the crowds parted enough.
'And you had better not forget our deal,' she said.
'What deal?'
'The one where you get to drive us back to Sanctuary,' she said with a smirk which told him there were to be no arguments as she turned and walked off into the crowd.
***
Brennan strolled over to the passenger side and opened it for Shalimar. She swung her legs out and placed them on the floor. She was pretty sure she wasn't drunk. She would surely know if she was drunk but she felt fine. She looked at Brennan and was suddenly overcome with the desperate desire to giggle. She doubled over with laughter as Brennan watched on with a bemused smile on his face.
'Alright Shal. Time to get you to bed,' Brennan said, as he led her out of the garage and into the main halls of Sanctuary.
'Only if I can go to bed with you,' she said, in her sexiest voice. Brennan wasn't entirely turned on but that was only because of the slurring.
'No way. I am not waking up with you tomorrow morning,' he replied as he continued to lead her towards her bedroom.
She started giggling inanely again and didn't stop till they reached her door. Brennan slid it open and walked inside, lightly pushing Shalimar in the small of her back in front of him. She walked straight over to the bed at which point she collapsed onto it and lay there, her legs sticking off the end and her eyes looking straight up at the ceiling in an absorbed manner.
Brennan looked at her as he slid the door closed behind him, for fear that Jesse or Lexa would walk past and set Shalimar off again with the laughter which could indicate that she was crazy. He walked over to her and knelt down, reaching for her right leg so he could undo her boots.
Suddenly his chin was caught by a steady kick from Shalimar. He landed on his back on the floor and felt the pain shooting through his jaw. He lifted a hand to his face to make sure nothing was broken and looked up as Shalimar's head appeared over the edge of the bed. She looked wide eyed and apologetic.
'Are you okay?' she said, her voice full of wonder, possibly at how much power her foot had.
'Yeah,' Brennan said with a groan.
'What happened?' Shalimar asked as she clambered off the bed onto the floor and crawled over to Brennan. He rolled his eyes at her and sat up.
'You kicked me, Shal.'
A moment passed as Brennan watched Shalimar's face. It didn't move for a second and then she creased up into a ball and he could just about make out the sound of cackling laughter.
He stood up, feeling the aching in his back and grabbed Shalimar underneath her arms, pulling her gently to her feet. He conveyed her to the bed and she immediately lowered herself onto it, the exhaustion kicking in even through the blur of alcohol. Brennan managed to remove her boots without too much difficulty second time round and he pulled the covers up so Shalimar could climb in. He was not even going to attempt to take off the rest of her outfit.
He placed her boots in the corner of the room so she wouldn't trip over them and then turned back to her to say goodnight. But he was too late. Shalimar's eyes were closed and her breathing was deep and steady. She was completely oblivious to the world around her. She looked so peaceful, so still and Brennan could have watched her sleep forever.
He smiled and turned, sliding the door open and then closed behind him, as silently as he could, even though he knew not even her nocturnal instincts could wake her now.
Anyway, moving on. I hope you all enjoy this fanfiction. I'm having a lot of fun writing it so obviously it would be very much appreciated if you would take a few minutes to review and say something nice or not so nice depending on how you feel.
Disclaimer: none of the Mutant X characters belong to me. The original characters (and any Mutant X fan should know them when they come along) do but I am happy to hire them out for a small fee.
And with no further ado, enjoy.
***
'Well, well. We thought you guys had fallen off the edge of the world.'
Shalimar smiled as she walked down the metal stairs towards the main room of the safehouse. It was their third one of the day and they had received the same reactions from each. Everyone had assumed that there were bigger problems that the team had to deal with but that didn't mean they were all above a little good natured teasing.
'Hello to you too,' Shalimar replied with a smirk.
'How you guys doing?' Brennan said as he closed the door behind him and followed Shalimar down the stairs.
'We're doing okay. You wanna check out the records?' replied a tall blonde haired man. He strolled towards the table in the corner of the room. It held a computer and he picked up a disk which he then handed to Shalimar.
'Thanks Glenn,' she said.
'So what happened to you guys?' said a redhead from the sofa.
'We got a little sidetracked,' Brennan said, hesitantly. He didn't want them to know the whole story about how they had quite simply neglected their jobs but he figured they had to know about the Dominion sometime. They had been handing out warnings in all the other safehouses that if anyone showed up claiming to be from a group affiliated with Mutant X that they were to withhold judgment till they talked to the team. They couldn't risk anymore innocent new mutants being hurt at the hands of the Dominion.
After they had given the warning they said their goodbyes and walked, with the disk out of the building.
'So, that went okay?' Shalimar said tentatively as they walked down the street towards the car they had decided to bring instead of the Helix.
'Yeah,' Brennan answered. 'They don't seem to hate us too much.'
Shalimar laughed as she pulled the keys out of her back pocket.
'Hand them over,' Brennan said as they reached the car.
'Excuse me?'
'You drove from Sanctuary to all the over safehouses and we agreed that to massage my extremely sore male ego at being driven around by a woman we would let me drive back to Sanctuary,' Brennan replied as he leant against the car door.
'Who said we were going back to Sanctuary?' Shalimar said with a smirk as she shoved Brennan out of the way of the driver side door with her hip. She stuck the key in the lock and pulled the door open before swiftly sliding onto the seat.
'Shal, its getting dark. Where else are we going to go other than back to Sanctuary?'
She raised her eyebrows as she yanked the door closed behind her and started the engine. Brennan jogged round to the passenger side, the fear that he would be left behind not completely unfounded.
***
The tapping stopped momentarily as Jesse took a gulp of his coffee before spitting it back into the mug as he realised that it was stone cold. Lexa looked over at him, her eyebrows raised. She saw his brow furrowed as he tried to work out how long he had been working. After the events of the day before the team had all been eager to get to work and Jesse and Lexa had done a little that night and had started early that morning after getting some rest. They had all slept easier that night than they had done in a long time. Their respective burdens had been lifted and Lexa, more so than any of the others felt pure relief in her heart. She hadn't expected to. Sheer terror was one of the emotions she predicted she would experience the minute she turned out the light, but she had lain back on her bed and had felt free at last. It had been a long time coming but it was worth every second.
'You want another cup?' she asked Jesse quietly. They hadn't been pushing themselves too hard so far. They were already ahead in terms of having the inside scoop on the Dominion. The figured they could both take their time in putting all the data together. The Dominion clearly weren't going anywhere.
'You know what?' Jesse replied, turning in his chair.
'What?' Lexa answered from her chair.
'I think I would much rather go to bed,' Jesse said with a smirk.
'Really?' Lexa replied, her smile getting wider. 'Well, I personally think we should really get cracking on this assignment here because Brennan and Shalimar are relying on us to do our job...' She squealed as Jesse walked over to her and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. He carried her out of the lab in the direction of his bedroom.
'I'm upside down,' Lexa shouted, laughter evident in her voice.
'I got that,' Jesse said, as he kicked open his door and walked in, ducking slightly to avoid bumping Lexa's head against the doorframe.
She let out another squeal as Jesse dropped her onto the bed. Her head hit the pillow and she closed her eyes as she felt the blood rush from her head to the rest of her body. She opened her eyes as she felt Jesse's weight on top of her and smiled as she saw his sparkling blue eyes looking into her own.
'I like this plan,' she whispered before her mouth was caught by Jesse's in a kiss which left her gasping for air.
***
The beat of the music boomed through the club and Brennan had to squint as one of the flashing lights flicked across his face, straight into his eyes. He looked around him at the packed club. Shalimar had insisted that they take some time out to relax and after the events of the previous few days he wasn't complaining. Plus, any excuse to watch Shalimar dance was cool by him. He felt the grip of her hand on his tighten as they moved through the people.
'You wanna dance with me?' she said as she looked over her shoulder at him. She knew the answer would be no. It always was but she thought she would ask anyway, try and entice him with her puppy dog eyes.
'You want a drink?' Brennan said with a smirk.
'That's a no then?'
'Your usual?'
'Yeah,' they both replied simultaneously as they split up, each going their separate ways, Shalimar to dance her tension away, Brennan to watch.
She could sense everything in the club. It was almost like she could feel everyone around her through every single one of her senses. From the information she was getting she could paint pictures in her head, pretty accurate ones at that of everyone and what they ere doing. It was all about how the music and lights bounced off of the people. It had confused the hell out of her the first time it had happened. She hadn't been expecting it and it had scared her. She remembered running away from any sign of civilisation. She had hid out for a while but had eventually realised she couldn't stay hidden for the rest of her life. And gradually she had learnt to adapt her skill to fit in with her surroundings. She had taught herself, with the help of Adam how to tune it all out so she could live like a normal person most of the time. She would use it when she needed to find someone but other than that she could have it as background music to her life. It was like a soundtrack, one which didn't impede the enjoyment of the movie.
She walked through the crowds to get to the middle of the crush of people. She liked the atmosphere within the club even at its busiest. She may have been a country girl at heart, loving the feeling of freedom that nature gave her but she could never stay away from the crowded cities for long.
'Two beers,' Brennan called out over the bar at the pretty brunette serving him. He turned to look at Shalimar. She was already lost to the world, in her own little place in time and space, letting the music wash over her already glowing body.
'Thanks,' Brennan said as he turned back round and handed the money over in exchange for the much needed drinks. He had been working hard all day, going from safehouse to safehouse, and they had both had to do a lot of talking.
He closed his eyes and was once again assaulted by one of the many images of Laura that seemed to be sticking with him. The scene that he and Shalimar had seen the day before was probably going to stay with them forever. Everytime he closed his eyes for an indefinite period of time he was hit with a flash of her. Sometimes they were pictures of her smiling or laughing or looking bemused at the tension between him and Shalimar. But more often than not they were snapshots of her mangled body. They were disturbing and Brennan knew that if he needed anyone at that point in time it was probably Emma. She would have been able to give him the serenity he needed. He hadn't slept well the night before and he didn't think he was going to sleep well that night either. It would take time, he knew that much, but he didn't know how many more images he could take.
He swigged at his bottle and felt the tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw the pretty brunette who had served him. She had come out from behind the bar and was smiling at him. He smirked as he looked at her. She leant into him.
'You wanna dance?' she said over the music.
'No, but my girlfriends on the dance floor so if you wanted to you could go dance with her,' he replied, hoping that she would get the message. The weird thing about it all was, he thought as he watched her walk away that he hadn't even been tempted. He had always known that his feelings for Shalimar were completely different to those he had ever had for any other woman. She was different. Their whole relationship was so much more intense but also so much more dangerous. The consequences were more far reaching, they were scarier and it was the reason why Shalimar and Brennan had steered clear of each other for so long.
'That for me?'
He turned and saw the blonde feral. She looked hot and he handed the drink over to her. He knew she was going to go back out onto the dance floor and that he probably wouldn't see her for the rest of the evening except for some swift glances which he would receive when the crowds parted enough.
'And you had better not forget our deal,' she said.
'What deal?'
'The one where you get to drive us back to Sanctuary,' she said with a smirk which told him there were to be no arguments as she turned and walked off into the crowd.
***
Brennan strolled over to the passenger side and opened it for Shalimar. She swung her legs out and placed them on the floor. She was pretty sure she wasn't drunk. She would surely know if she was drunk but she felt fine. She looked at Brennan and was suddenly overcome with the desperate desire to giggle. She doubled over with laughter as Brennan watched on with a bemused smile on his face.
'Alright Shal. Time to get you to bed,' Brennan said, as he led her out of the garage and into the main halls of Sanctuary.
'Only if I can go to bed with you,' she said, in her sexiest voice. Brennan wasn't entirely turned on but that was only because of the slurring.
'No way. I am not waking up with you tomorrow morning,' he replied as he continued to lead her towards her bedroom.
She started giggling inanely again and didn't stop till they reached her door. Brennan slid it open and walked inside, lightly pushing Shalimar in the small of her back in front of him. She walked straight over to the bed at which point she collapsed onto it and lay there, her legs sticking off the end and her eyes looking straight up at the ceiling in an absorbed manner.
Brennan looked at her as he slid the door closed behind him, for fear that Jesse or Lexa would walk past and set Shalimar off again with the laughter which could indicate that she was crazy. He walked over to her and knelt down, reaching for her right leg so he could undo her boots.
Suddenly his chin was caught by a steady kick from Shalimar. He landed on his back on the floor and felt the pain shooting through his jaw. He lifted a hand to his face to make sure nothing was broken and looked up as Shalimar's head appeared over the edge of the bed. She looked wide eyed and apologetic.
'Are you okay?' she said, her voice full of wonder, possibly at how much power her foot had.
'Yeah,' Brennan said with a groan.
'What happened?' Shalimar asked as she clambered off the bed onto the floor and crawled over to Brennan. He rolled his eyes at her and sat up.
'You kicked me, Shal.'
A moment passed as Brennan watched Shalimar's face. It didn't move for a second and then she creased up into a ball and he could just about make out the sound of cackling laughter.
He stood up, feeling the aching in his back and grabbed Shalimar underneath her arms, pulling her gently to her feet. He conveyed her to the bed and she immediately lowered herself onto it, the exhaustion kicking in even through the blur of alcohol. Brennan managed to remove her boots without too much difficulty second time round and he pulled the covers up so Shalimar could climb in. He was not even going to attempt to take off the rest of her outfit.
He placed her boots in the corner of the room so she wouldn't trip over them and then turned back to her to say goodnight. But he was too late. Shalimar's eyes were closed and her breathing was deep and steady. She was completely oblivious to the world around her. She looked so peaceful, so still and Brennan could have watched her sleep forever.
He smiled and turned, sliding the door open and then closed behind him, as silently as he could, even though he knew not even her nocturnal instincts could wake her now.