Shalimar sat up quickly and her feral eyes adjusted to the darkness. The fire was no more than a flicker and the cave was cast with eerie shadows dancing along the walls.

She looked around for the source of the disturbance. The children were still asleep and there was nothing in any of the corners. She looked towards the back of the cave but still saw nothing but the wall.

The sound was there again, only it was right next to her. She looked to Brennan. In waking up, she'd pulled the jacket from them both and she could see a light sheen of sweat along his body. She placed a hand on his forhead and pushed back his hair. He wasn't shivering like he'd been before and Shalimar assumed that was a good sign.

He didn't have a fever; even with the shivering to a minimum and the sweat, his body wasn't exactly throwing off heat. Which didn't do much to settle her mind. She got up and crept to the woodpile. She picked up two healthy looking logs and threw them on the fire. She picked up one of the sticks they'd used to cook the birds and stoked the fire. Soon it was growing again.

Shalimar nearly jumped out of her skin when Brennan coughed. He was still lying down but he was awake.

"Shal?" He whispered. She checked the fire one last time before she returned to him.

"Yeah. The fire went out." She sat down next to him. She watched as he struggled to take a deep enough breath. "You ok?"

Brennan nodded.

He'd kill for a bottle of Vicks.

"Remind me never to let Adam send us on a mission again." As if to prove his point, Brennan suffered through another round of coughing.

"Are you kidding me? One week out of the field and you'd go crazy." Brennan knew she was right. It didn't mean he had to tell her that.

And somehow, he thought she already knew.

~~~

Lying on his back, Brennan felt like a very large, very heavy animal was sitting on his chest. He hated this part. He'd be coughing his lungs up for the next two days and by the time he was done, he'd feel like his throat was bleeding.

He remembered what Adam said. 'It's all part of the healing process', Brennan mocked in his head.

As soon as he was feeling better, he'd have a few choice words for Adam. Along with a demand that the genius find some way to combat this weakness. Or at least speed up his recovery.

Shalimar was sleeping beside him.

At least he assumed she was sleeping. You could never tell with ferals. He didn't want to wake her but he'd kill for a conversation at the moment.

Instead, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

~~~

Either Shalimar was having a very weird dream, or someone was standing over her, with a camera.

"This'll be great for the picture album." She cracked open an eye and then shut it.

Definitely Jesse. With a camera.

She opened her eyes again when she realized the reason she couldn't breathe properly was due to the weight on her stomach. And the arm around her waist.

Shalimar looked down at Brennan's dark hair. She smiled to herself as she felt him snuggle into her shirt.

"As cute as this is," He snapped another picture, "Adam is waiting back at sanctuary. And I haven't had breakfast yet."

"We haven't had food in two days." Brennan mumbled. He rolled over onto his back. There was a cramp in it and he really shouldn't have slept like that. Then again...

He smiled at Shalimar's touseled hair and the imprint of his jacket along her cheek.

"What?"

"Nothing." She eyed him suspiciously. Slowly she turned to the childen, who were, for the most part, asleep. Except, of course for Andrew and Anna, who seemed to always be on alert.

Shalimar stood and stretched, feeling the muscles in her arms and legs regain some of their elasticity.

"Andrew, Anna. This is Jesse. Jesse, this is Andrew and Anna." Shalimar pointed to the two children as they crouched over their friends. Jesse walked over to them and shook their hands.

Brennan was too busy staring at the expanse of skin being revealed as Shalimar stretched and twisted the kinks out of her body. She threw him a smile over her shoulder.

"Better not let your girlfriend catch you." She motioned to Alex, who was crawling out from her nest of jackets, grumbling and growling at everyone around her.

Brennan groaned.

"Another one?" Jesse asked increduoulsly. He reached his hand down and helped Brennan up. "Everywhere you go..."

"Not you too. She's less than half my age!"

"You've never actually acted your age..."

"Don't we have somewhere to go?" Shalimar smiled as she picked up Brennan's jacket. Phil, Ryan and Jackie were still half asleep and supporting themselves using their older companions. Jackie could barely keep her eyes open and she kept slumping against Anna's side.

Brennan looked around. Everyone had their clothes, and their shoes. There was nothing left but the charred remains of the firewood and the bones from 'dinner'.

"All ready to go?" The kids nodded lazily as they struggled to stay upright. Shalimar could just see the sun beginning to rise through the trees and she couldn't even begin to imagine what time it was.

Silently they made their way to the Helix.

Brennan had never been so happy to see anything in his life.

Lucky for him, Jesse landed the plane less than a quarter mile from the cave's opening. If he had to walk much more than that, he couldn't be held responsible for his actions.

The short journey was made in an array of stumbling, growling and large amounts of yawning.

The children climbed sleepily up the ramp.

Brennan stopped half way up the ramp and just...

Stared.

There was a couch. A very blue, very soft looking couch seated in the back of the helix. There was also a seat missin from the back of the jet. But Brennan wasn't going to complain about that because he would die to feel the soft material against his skin.

That thought quickly left his head as he watched the six children all but fly onto the piece of furniture.

He stumbled forward as Shalimar brushed passed him, barely concealing a smile.

"Come on fly boy, the faster you walk, the faster we get home. Back to soft, warm beds, 2000 thread count sheets and decent food.

Brennan glared at her retreating back as he dragged his heavy feet up the never-ending ramp. He dropped listlessly into the second pilot's seat.

"Hey Brennan..." Jesse ventured.

"What?" He asked with his tired eyes almost fused shut.

"As soon as we get back to sanctuary, you're taking a shower." Shalimar couldn't help but snort from her seat behind him.

"Shut up."

~~~

The helix landed softly on the strip. Shalimar stood and stretched, again, before heading to the back.

Brennan cracked one eye open. He shook his head.

"Never again."

Jesse shot him a skeptical look. It wasn't the first nor the last time Jesse would hear those words from his friend's mouth. It was always under different circumstances, but more than likely the same outcome.

"Come on, Emma's been worried sick about you guys and Adam wants to get a look at you and the kids." Jesse extended his hand and Brennan gladly accepted.

He had a few choice words for Adam.

~~

The younger mutants looked around Sanctuary in awe.

"You live here?" Ryan asked.

"Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Except when we're in the field." Brennan added as he watched Adam approach them. Shalimar nudged him in the ribs.

"I'm glad to see everyone made it in one piece."

When Brennan was through with him, Adam might have to re-evaluate that statement.

This time, it was Emma who nudged him in the ribs.

He didn't even know she was standing there.

Shalimar stepped forward to stand next to Adam. "Kids, this is Adam Kane. I'm sure you've heard of him." They all nodded. "But remember what Brennan told you about Eckhart. They nodded again. "And Adam," Shalimar started from left to right, "This is Alex, Ryan, Andrew, Jackie, Anna, and Phil."

"Welcome to Sanctuary. You've already met Jesse, and the young lady standing next to Brennan is Emma."

"Hi." She smiled gently and then frowned. "I get the feeling that you guys are hunrgy. As soon as Adam checks you out, we'll go so we can hunt down in the kitchen."

Brennan visibly paled.

"The food wasn't that bad, was it Brennan?" Jesse joked.

Brennan grabbed Shalimar's arm, a bit too hard if her grimace was any indication. Emma grabbed his other arm as his knees buckled beneath him.

He began coughing, hard and painfully and one of these days, Adam was going to get it.

His chest was burning and his body could do little more than take the brunt of the pain and try to breathe deeply.

Jesse replaced Emma and together, he and Shalimar led the elemental to the infirmary.

"Emma, could you take the children to their rooms? I'll comm you when I'm done with the diagnostics, alright?"

"Ok." She watched Adam jog off towards the infirmary before turning back to the kids.

"Is Brennan alright?" Alex asked.

"He should be. Adam says this has happened before and he's the best doctor I've ever met. He's saved all of our lives more than once."

She glanced towards the living room.

"I bet you guys would love a shower. I'll tell you what, you guys can use our bathrooms and if Brennan isn't out by the time you are, we can watch a movie in the living room."

~~~~

Shalimar sat at the lab table, watching as Brennan choked down some God awful concoction that smelled ten times worse than it looked.

But, whatever it was, no matter what Shalimar's nose was telling her, it was definitely helping Brennan cough up all the congestion in his chest.

Brennan lay there, on his side, trying his best to breathe normally. He didn't think he could stomach another cup of Adam's Death Potion. If Adam wasn't essential to the well being of just about every new mutant alive, Brennan couldn't be sure he wouldn't have electrocuted him a long time ago.

"Adam, I'm fine, really." Adam scoffed.

"My scans lead me to disagree." He motioned to Shalimar. She hopped off of the stool and came to stand beside the scientist. "You see these?" He pointed to various objects on the X-Ray of Brennan's chest. "That's mucus that he needs to cough up. I can't let him back into the field with this sort of congestion. His body isn't in any condition to fight if he can barely breathe. On top of that he's got a fever of 99.3 which is not that bad considering, but that coupled with slight dehydration, malnutrition and mild anemia...well, lets just say he won't be on active duty for at least three days."

"I am still here you know. Three days? Adam, come on, I'm fine."

"So fine that you can't even walk on your own?"

"And whose fault is that? Of course, I decided a little walk in a thunderstorm is just what I needed. A trip through a hundred degree rainforest, I don't know what your definition of jungle is, but that wasn't it, was wholely and completely my idea, right Adam?"

"I never said it was, but you know everytime you go on a mission, there are risks."

"And you always seem to know more about them than we do!"

"Now wait a minute! There was no way I could have known..."

"You told us Jesse would be there to pick us up. You said nothing about spending the night in the jungle."

"I already told you, there was no way to know..."

"Would you two shut up?" Shalimar yelled above the testosterone match taking place in front of her. "Now I've got a headache. Are you happy? Yes, Adam did say Jesse was going to be there, but things came up..." Brennan began to say something but thought better of it when Shalimar's eyes flashed. "And yes things came up, but we should have gotten a better heads up than that. And next time," She glanced at Brennan, "We will be better prepared. The point is, we completed the mission, you'll be better in a few days and, you could use the time off, and we saved six lives." She looked from one to the other, wondering how such different people could possibly work together on anything. "We should be focusing on the dozens of other kids that are still missing, instead of fighting over something that can't be changed. I'm going to go shower and check on the children."

Brennan sighed, laying his head back against the chair. He hated when Shalimar was right. And he hated it when it made him look this stupid. They should be searching for the missing children. Instead he and Adam were bitching like school girls about something that, for the most part, didn't matter anymore.

He closed his eyes and began to doze off. If he stayed awake, it could only end in another arguement.

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