"Brennan, wait up!" Jesse takes the steps two at a time. His friend was doing the 'I don't want to talk about it' walk. It seemed he'd been doing that a lot the past few weeks. And almost always when Lexa was involved.

He's not an idiot, Brennan's never been a fan of Lexa but even then, he tolerated her. But now, it seemed a chore just to stay in her presence.

The taller man stops abruptly. Jesse takes that as a sign to continue.

"What's up with you and Lexa?" The elemental sighs and turns to the side. He grips the railing tightly in a failing effort to curb his emotions.

"You guys are always at each other's throats but just now, I could have cut the tension with a knife. I know you don't trust her but..."

"Look, it's not about that." Jesse watches worriedly as Brennan flexes his arms against the metal. "Yesterday, I went to see how she was doing. She says part of her blames me for forcing her to make that choice and that I was the last person she wanted near her.

"You can't blame her Brennan. She lost someone close. Any of us would do the same thing.

There's a moment of angry silence and Jesse admits that he's confused.

"You don't get it." He pushes off the railing to face his friend. His voice drops to almost a whisper. "On our mission at Broder Industries, Lexa got Shalimar killed." Brennan drags his hands across his face to try and clear his mind. "I made Samantha takes us back. She didn't want to do it. We were so close. Every time Lexa ran off, people died. We had to keep back and each time Samantha got weaker. I lost two people because of her. I try to forgive her Jesse, and I can, for Samantha, but not for Shal."

They stare at each other silently before Jesse nods. There's nothing to say to that. Nothing that could make Brennan forget. There's no point in pushing the issue. Pushing him.

Jesse's not sure he wouldn't feel the same way.

"She's used to working alone."

"Don't make excuses for her Jesse. We were all used to being on our own. But we got over it. She needs to get over it. Lexa's not going to risk everyone else's life on past vendettas. I'm not letting her."

The thing that worries Jesse, isn't Brennan's words, but the calm determination behind them. Sometime's he forgets that Brennan is a eletrical mutant and not a feral. But he gets the point. He understands why his friend is angry and he understands, too well, what it would mean if Lexa jeopardized the team again. She may have connections to some of the most powerful people in the world, but she still had to answer to someone. Brennan doesn't. Barely did when Adam was still with them. If anything happened to Shalimar, or even him, there would be nowhere for Lexa to hide, and nothing short of death stopping Brennan from exacting revenge.

"I'lm not saying she isn't stubborn but I think she's trying. Let me at least try to get through to her. It won't happen overnight, Brennan, but there's no reason we can't be a team. I don't know exactly what happened back there, but I know she wouldn't purposely put Shal in danger." Jesse takes a slow step forward. And then another. He rests a hnd on the taller man's shoulder. "I know how you must have felt. The best thing you can do is go see Shalimar." Jesse's eyes flick over the railing and then back to his friend. "And avoid breaking anything else." Brennan's eyes follow the same path to the shattered glass and broken picture frame on the floor. There's streaking on the wall where the bolt of electricty hit it.

"Yeah." He claps Jesse on the shoulder, then turns around. He takes a deep breath before making his way towards Shal's room.

Jesse looks back down in time to see Lexa looking up at him.

"Are we redecorating or something?" He can hear the sarcasm in her voice. He closes his eyes and whispers.

"Or something."


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