Gwendolyn Stewart's Story

Her breathing continued to come out in labored pants as she stared accusingly at the crumpled piece of paper in her hands, her mind running a mile a minute. What...what did this mean? He'd taken it from her apartment while he'd been in there obviously, but she'd tucked the pad of paper out of sight, she'd thought. Unless he'd been specifically looking for it... Oh God..

In her mind flashed the different questions he'd posed to her over their walk here, and it felt like a subtle interrogation to her now. Had he taken her out today just to get the information out of her? With the way he must live his life and from her own interactions with Xander, now that she knew he'd stolen something from her - something she'd wanted to keep private from him specifically until just a little while ago - it all felt incredibly fake. It was hard to imagine Xander expressing innocent interest in someone just for the sake of interest and she started to see an ulterior motive in everything he'd done up to this point. God, he was spying on me... and this whole time I've been...

It was incredibly ironic but Gwen started to feel a little sick with anger. She felt very used right now and was regretting ever considering liking him. With a disgusted click of lips, she started to crumple the paper back up and was preparing to throw it away and storm out of there when she stopped and unfolded it again. If...he'd known what was on it and had been bleeding her for information the whole time... why had he given it back to her? It might have been his taunt to pressure her for information, letting her know he knew so she'd tell him - he could be waiting out there now for her to come bursting out of here waving it around and demanding to know why he'd stolen it. But that didn't really make sense. With it in her possession now, she could deny that whatever he'd seen on it simply wasn't there. But if she'd wanted to get any direct answers about what he knew about the paper's contents, she would have to admit that she'd been writing about him. Was that what he wanted? Still, there was no way for him to interpret her next moves accurately. She could get mad and freaked out and just leave without saying another word. Then again, it would scare her off of spying on him ever again... It was an awful lot to go through to get that end however.

It occurred to her now that she had an awful lot of questions and very few sure and definitive answers. Any action she took, whether she went out there angry or afraid would be based on assumptions she was making blindly. Afterall, he hadn't grilled her about it; he'd asked some questions about her latest project, but she was a writer and that was normal for people to do. And also she had to remember who she was dealing with as well: Xander, his other half. Alex was a good guy and she found it hard to believe that if anything like this had happened, he was hardly the one to orchestrate it all. Then again, she'd just met him and barely knew him.

But she really wanted to like him. So with all the theories and doubts swirling around her head, she calmly decided to give him a chance to explain. And in turn, she would be honest with him about her story and her original reasons for agreeing on this date of theirs. It was only fair. Neatly folding the paper back up and tucking it away into her purse, she realized that this whole thing was really not a big deal. But he'd expressed interest in her first and it had been Xander at her door offering her pineapple pizza. That made her feel like he'd at least been aware of something. Or he could just be using her as a plaything, a distraction from the things he dealt with on a regular basis.

Looking in the mirror, she started to give herself last minute adjustments, fluffing her hair with her fingers a little bit and her eyes trailed down to her body. God, she looked like such a slut. With a shake of her head she began to button up her shirt with the button she'd undone earlier, but slowly started to stop. No, she'd leave it. It was an odd thought that crossed her mind, the fantasy she'd had when he'd come from the alley popping into mind. Things were still salvageable. She would give him a chance. But there was nothing wrong with greasing the wheels to get some answers.

With a sigh, she stepped from the restroom and exited the short hallway, her eyes scanning the room, looking for him. When she finally laid eyes on him, even after the discovery she'd made, a smile jumped to her lips involuntarily. Gwen approached him with a seductive saunter across the space that separated them, her hips swaying with every step and her breasts jiggling lightly from the gaping opening in her shirt. She would settle this and he would tell her everything she wanted to know.

Back in his presence again it was hard not to bring it up right then. But luckily, he and Xander kept her somewhat distracted with their witty banter. "Oh, I'm sure our fellow patrons would love to get an eyeful," she said with a grin and casting an appraising glance around. As he told her what he'd gotten her, she gratefully took the offered cup with a smile. "Thank you. It's perfect." And then the two were off again, racing each other through a conversation.

She watched him closer now, looking for signs or hints that he had other intentions, anything that fit with her suspicions. But as far as she could tell, the one was acting like a self-absorbed junkie and the other was trying to control his companion while simultaneously attempting to impress her. It made her have second thoughts about confronting him, especially with how busy he seemed to be right now, but the thought would not go away. It was just too big of a coincidence to have been just a flippant, kleptomaniac gesture. She was positive it had been intentional but she no longer thought that he was trying to get something from her. That left the question of "why?" though and the not knowing bugged her.

So, for the next couple of seconds after Alex turned to her with the patient resignation of a babysitter, she debated on the "when". He was obviously busy right now with lots going on and she definitely didn't want to get between Xander and his coffee. He was still such a wild card and she didn't know what to expect. If she started to draw Alex's attention from the very important task at hand, would he blow up like he had on the way here? That had been for different reasons of course, but she didn't want to be the one standing next to him when he went off and the manager was forced to call people to handle the situation. Then again, looking around at the people here, even the other customers, it seemed they recognized and were familiar with the obsessive ranting of her companion. He wasn't making that huge of a scene right now, but she doubted it would come as a surprise to anybody here if Xander suddenly lost it. With how practiced the expressions were, they probably even had a specific protocol for his visits.

That set her a little at ease and made her smirk to herself as the thought of how that routine was developed flashed in her mind and it both unsettled and amused her. Going with her tactics before, now seemed the perfect time to bring all this up. While he was distracted and trying to reign Xander in, he might be more truthful and less likely to think too much about what he was saying.

"I wanted to thank you," she said, tapping her hands on the coffee cup idly. "For the paper. You definitely saved the day. I don't know why I didn't this time, but I usually have something in my purse. Without it I probably wouldn't have made it here without making a mess and looking like a zombified secretary." She laughed lightly then, her blue eyes twinkling at him. "But I'm afraid to say, your notes were ruined." She nodded lightly and paused to search his face before continuing in a calm voice. "Or rather mine were." Her expression was still warm and she was obviously not upset but she had an expectant look in her eyes.

The people around already knew he was somewhat crazy, so it did not concern her what they heard now or thought of their business. All she wanted was an explanation. Seemed like she was demanding that a lot from him. But she couldn't help it. He was confounding and irritating and endearing all at the same time while still remaining as mysterious as a locked box. Everytime she opened a door, she was met with another door immediately on the other side of it. When would she be able to just see him clearly?

Listening to his explanation, she nodded slowly, exhaling through her nose and her shoulders relaxing. So it had been Xander who'd taken it and at the thought she felt herself smiling at Alex. She knew he wouldn't do that. He may be a bit paranoid and jumpy but it just didn't seem his style to spy and steal from her like that. Thinking back, she did remember him whispering to himself excitedly in the hallway and even though she hadn't heard a lot of that conversation, she now knew what it had been about. It was like putting a puzzle together and seeing part of the picture it was making.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she let the two of them talk for a moment, her skin prickling with tiny pinches and her eyes catching the look the other gave her making her almost choke on her Mocha with a laugh. Fine, so the other was upset with her for breaking through their carefully crafted wall. At least she assumed that was the reason until Alex tried to reassure her Xander had not read what she'd written. Apparently he had and he even knew what was on the paper and it made her grow cold. Gwen had wanted to tell him about her story and his relation to it but it seemed he already knew...or only one of them did. Whatever Xander knew he wasn't sharing it with Alex. Or maybe he hadn't figured it out... No, that was unlikely. She'd put her notepad out of sight and if he could get the page off of it AND read it all without Alex knowing then it was not very probable that anything could get past him.

As the coffee was finished being made and handed over to him, she watched as he tasted it, smirking at the sweat beading down the sides of the server's face. His eyes latched onto Xander as he swallowed a gulp of the hot liquid as if he were looking for the approval of a hungry tiger. At Xander's response to the young man, Gwen frowned and took another sip of her own drink to cover the expression. God, how arrogant could you get?--and that was when it dawned on her why Xander hadn't told Alex what was on the paper. Not only was she not considered a threat - except to Alex's mouth - but here she was writing a book based on him. It probably fed his ego to be the main character and inspiration for a novel and the story was just different enough not to encourage his paranoia.

So, following him to a pair of chairs in the back corner of the room, she felt somewhat lighter having gotten all that mess out of the way. Not only was she not angry anymore - having gotten her notes back anyway - but she no longer felt burdened by the need to confess to him about the subject matter. No, she wasn't after information anymore. She just wanted to enjoy his company and hoped they got the chance to do that without being interrupted again.

"No this is good," she said nodding and settling into her seat across from him, her dress riding up to mid-thigh as she crossed her legs, smooth skin shining in the light filtering through the window nearby. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she continued to sip from her drink as he asked her about the nosebleed incident. The concern still in his voice really touched her.

"No, actually," she said, setting the drink down on the table, her brows crinkling slightly. "I mean, I've gotten nosebleeds before, sure, but nothing as sudden and forceful as that. And with no apparent cause." She paused and looked down at the tabletop for a moment, lost in thought. "Well, there was this one thing... A few moments before you came out of the alley, I got really dizzy and almost fell down." She laughed a little nervously and rolled her eyes in embarrassment at having to explain this aloud to someone. It made her seem like a sickly or clumsy person when that couldn't be farther from the truth. It had been totally out of the ordinary what had happened.

"I'm not one to get light-headed or swoon," she said shaking her head. "As in EVER. I take care of myself, I rarely get sick, and I'm not a couch potato. So, I really don't know what happened. I thought maybe it was because I hadn't eaten yet, but I still haven't and I'm completely fine now." She paused and shrugged, picking up her cup again. "It was just like a wave of something hit me and then was gone, like that." She snapped her fingers and then took a sip of her coffee, swallowing before she continued. "I'm not too worried about it though. If it happens again, then I'll probably go and get myself checked out or something. No big deal."

Again that show of concern warmed her heart and she could tell it was real. What he said did seem to make sense to her. Maybe she was being too passive about this. It wouldn't hurt to just check it out. "Maybe you're right," her brow crinkled with thought as she took another sip of coffee. "I can always go alone...but it might be nice to have you there." Her smile was small and secretive and just for him.

But the flirtatious mood was shattered as the other spoke up, his finger tapping repeatedly on the tabletop in an agitated fashion. Uh-oh. Xander wanted to "chat". Something was up. Instantly she found herself put on edge and for the next 5 minutes as she listened to him speak, the tension did not leave her but seemingly grew with each passing moment. The smooth sound of his voice was still there, coming out quick and even but it was no longer full of the appeal it held before. There was an edge to his voice now, full of a threat bubbling under the surface, almost...predatory.

At first he wasn't making any sense but still she felt like there was a target somewhere on her and he was aiming for it. "I don't understand," she said, casting a quick and worried look around them, hoping to find safety in the public atmosphere. Alex wouldn't let him do anything to her, would he? But then Xander was moving on and there was still no sign of the main personality. It had already been established for her that although Alex seemed the owner of their body, Xander held a dominance over him she couldn't comprehend. She hoped Alex would be able to stop Xander from acting violently towards her...

The tension still had her on the edge of her seat as he continued to speak, but then she was blinking at him as an apology was offered. Well, yes, she did find it odd that for a man on the run from dangerous people, he didn't seem to put much effort into hiding that he was different. But if he hadn't she probably wouldn't have noticed as much and would have been continuing to sit in her apartment in her loungewear writing about a lady jogging in the park and meeting a lovely stranger by chance. It wasn't necessarily original or groundbreaking so she was still somewhat grateful for the opportunity to have noticed he wasn't normal.

As he went on, she had to keep her mouth from hanging open and had completely forgotten about her mocha as he proceeded to give her a personal history lesson. All the questions that she'd had buzzing around her head before, that had gotten in the way of her seeing him as a person and not just an idea, were now being answered to some degree. His threat however was not lost on her in all it's implications. Great, she thought as she once again scanned the room, no longer seeing the other occupants of the shop as possible allies. They might as well be part of the furniture. If he could kill her with his brain then any hope she might have had of jumping up and getting help from someone nearby was halted before it even began. Violence would ensue and he didn't even have to lift a finger to do it. Oh, not yet? Well that was reassuring. Yeah right.

Then the lesson went on and despite herself and the threat still present in him, she found it fascinating. So, Alex was the one who had that ability and Xander was a foreign entity? That hadn't occurred to her even though the alter-ego in her story had a demon inside his head; when considering Alex's situation, she'd automatically assumed it was a psychological problem of some kind. And now he was telling her there were others, like him and Alex. The tale he wove was a tragic one. How difficult it must be to always be alone, to always be betrayed and never able to rest or trust anyone. No wonder he'd blown up at her on the way here after she'd gotten Alex to blurt out their well-guarded secret. She could have been dangerous for them both and Xander had probably known all along what she'd been doing trying to weasel information out of them.

At Alex's words she balked and shook her head and started to say something to reassure him. No, she was alone in her head! She wasn't anything special like him or Peter! And then that tickle started up again, all over her body the nerves humming quietly making her shift in her chair with the urge to itch her skin with an all-body scratcher. Just as suddenly, it was gone, Xander's questions coming out in quick succession and causing her to pause.

The silence that followed after that made it feel like their corner of the room had turned into a vacuum and she breathed in deeply, pushing her coffee cup, still half-full, aside as she leaned forward and answered. "Well, yes, I felt something," she said lowly, her blue gaze piercing and intense. "My whole skin crawls whenever you two do the "phone talk" thing. What's your point?"

She'd thought it had just been the vibrational energy he gave off...although, now that she thought about it, she didn't know why she'd make that assumption. Why would he give off vibrations if he was just a split personality like she'd originally thought? Why hadn't this faulty logic set off any red flags before? God, when she'd woken up this morning did she just forget to open her eyes or something??? Something wasn't right with her head today and it all seemed to centralize around this guy and his fucked up little buddy.

Gently her hand reached up to touch her forehead as she stared at the table trying to make it all fit, trying to quickly reassemble this puzzle with all this new information. All of a sudden she no longer wanted to be a part of this. Alex was nice but this whole thing surrounding him was just too fucking big and scary and now it felt like she was being consumed by his life. She just wanted to go back home and write her book. She didn't want to become like him, unhappy, alone and paranoid.

With her eyes shining wetly, the ocean color swimming with the lights and tears that threatened she looked back up at him. "I'm not," she said shaking her head and pressing her lips together, her voice quiet. "I'm not a part of this. There's nothing wrong or different about me."

A glare found it's way to her features after she'd answered him, only flickering and softening with the appearance of Alex, his voice soft and plaintive. It helped her reconnect with him to a certain degree, but she did not smile and watched warily as Xander came out again, practically a bundle of joy apologizing even as he snorted and chuckled in her face. Gwen just wanted to smack him upside the head with a baseball bat and the desire was barely tempered by the thought that it was Alex's head too.

Even as she found herself waiting for him to explain why he was suddenly hysterical, his explanation didn't do much for her. Here he was vaguely describing a world she didn't understand - who the fuck were these people? And why all the rules and secrecy? - so once again she found herself lost as he sped ahead of her. His mention of two of them outside instantly made her turn to the window however, her eyes wide as she searched the street beyond. Instantly her eyes zoomed in on the two who resembled the ones in the lobby but she couldn't tell if they were the same guys; she hadn't studied the two in the apartment building too much. Other than a strange vibe coming off of them, they didn't appear out of the ordinary to her.

With a sigh, she turned back to him as his voice went on. This was becoming tiresome and she was quickly losing patience with his game. She was beginning to regain her common sense as well. For now, she let him rant on and she listened coolly, trying to take everything in with an objective outlook. The more he went on, the stronger she clung to her life and reality, shaking off the burst of emotion she'd felt before as she saw this for what it was: bullshit. Sure, okay, so Xander was real and he probably had these people after him, but the little flourishes he added like special powers and secret conspiracies; it was all too fanciful. It DID taste a lot like an action movie and any minute now in his story she expected a recount of a car chase or a bomb going off and them escaping in the nick of time.

And the way Alex talked it only seemed to further the fantasy they were locked in; he was lost to whatever it was they were involved in, wrapped up in that world where they fought an evil, secret agency of some kind. And then the last bit, Xander's voice changed to what could almost be described as a reassuring tone. Of course! HE was going to be her hero. AND he wanted her coffee. She rolled her eyes. The fact remained, none of his story was provable fact. She had not seen him use any superpowers, she had not seen him attack anyone and the only hint that all of this might be half true were the few people wearing sunglasses wandering around who didn't seem to belong. Nobody had threatened her. Nobody had attacked them while she'd been around. All he'd done was messed with her head and taken her for an emotional rollercoaster ride. Well, the ride was over and she wanted to get off.

Glancing at the cup, she picked it up out of his reach, seemingly regaining interest in the drink and took a tiny straw and stirred it idly while she spoke. "Wow, this is quite a story," she said seemingly to herself. "And I cannot believe I almost fell for it. Listen, I don't need your help because no one is after me. They're after you because you're the freak. Me? I'm stuck in reality with everyone else."

Smoothly, she scooted her chair back a little. "Alex, you seem like a nice guy and everything and it's been a fun and...interesting morning, but I gotta stop playing pretend now." Standing from her chair she adjusted the strap of her purse and sighed, giving him a gentle look. "I'm going to go home, probably check in to the hospital to see what's wrong with my head and then get a new laptop and finish writing my book. Hopefully some day you'll read it and think of me. If you're ever free of this...thing, just call me and we'll hook up. I'm in the phone book." Handing the cup to him she started to walk away, giving him a polite smile over her shoulder. "Thanks for the coffee." And then she was heading for the doors struggling with the urge to not look back a second time.

Walking to the door, she chided herself mercilessly about how stupid she'd been, hearing Alex call to her and feeling the distant goosebumps that signaled Xander's occasional internal dialogue. No! Just stop thinking like that! It's over as soon as you walk through those doors and you never have to see his crazy ass again! The front doors to Roasters seemed to shine in the morning light coming through them and she approached them with a steady walk, her head held high moving as if magnetized. Still, there was the buried hope that he might call her someday when he was mentally stable. It might be nice to get to know HIM without the stories and the glamor of Xander haunting his brain.

She was almost there, holding her breath as she let her hand drift from her side and reach out, a foot separating her from the metal and glass of freedom. A sharp intake of breath broke her concentration as Alex - no, Xander - was moving swiftly past her, slamming through the doors foot first like an action hero ready to break necks and kick ass. Her blue eyes opened wide and she frowned as she stepped forward to follow him wondering what the hell he was doing. She didn't get very far, her curved, slender form obscuring the doorway as she stood cemented in place gaping at the scene playing out before her.

Xander, whom she could identify by the way he moved, like a brazen wraith shot up to one of the men she saw from the window and grabbed him by the neck, the cords of muscle in his forearm standing out as he lifted the poor guy right off the ground. And then she felt it again, that wave of vertigo almost like she could feel it coming, rising like a tsunami and barreling down upon her. The shock of the impact of power however was not like before. Physically, it felt like she really was rooted in place and got hit by a wave crashing upon the beach, instantly submerged in "liquid", the air surrounding her body thickening.

Everything seemed to slow down, even her, and she felt like movement was done in a vat of molasses. All except for Xander who seemed to be moving like a fast-forwarded film. The body of the man he killed - and she knew he was dead; she could feel it like a light inside her head had gone out - fell from his grip like a feather drifting through the air down to the ground, taking forever for gravity to drag him down. But the instant he'd let go, Xander was moving past the corpse, his attention diverted elsewhere and like a rocket blur he was near the corner of the building engaging another who had drawn a weapon.

Even as she watched this happen Gwen felt herself become aware of things going on around her that she'd never noticed before but had always been there whispering deep inside her. An Asian woman in suit pants and with a laptop case over her shoulder had just left the small bookstore next to Roasters a few seconds before Xander had burst through the doors. She was talking on her cellphone to a colleague about a business project they were working on together and had instantly turned to see the wild man striding out of the coffee shop like Death himself. As Xander had grabbed the first Agent, Miranda Tam's eyes had widened and as the dead man had fallen she'd felt the urge to scream. But no sound had come out, her throat seeming to constrict against her will and Gwen felt her own throat spasm and close up, almost like she WAS Miranda Tam standing there, just behind herself watching the events unfold from the other woman's eyes.

Simultaneously, she felt others around her as well and knew things about them - a large man who'd been crossing the street when this all started happening stopped in his tracks to stare, already wheezing in fright as the fight or flight response kicked in; a college boy was on another street, talking to a girl he liked as they lounged in front of a pizza place and he turned to see the man with the gun as the girl pointed, her scream piercing the air as she saw the first Agent fall; and a man who was parked on the curb across the street on the other side had his back turned and was completely oblivious to the chaos happening just behind him, ready to go home to his boring and unsatisfactory wife after he'd just been out with the woman he'd been having an affair with.

As the second man died, Gwen felt the energy coursing from Xander hit her like the first and it seemed to "pop" the bubble she'd been stuck in, releasing her unevenly. Stepping forward out of the doorway of the coffee shop at normal speed she continued to watch Xander in amazement, the feel of the gun in his hand mirrored in her own as if she were actually holding it. The teenage girl across the street screamed again when the gun went off and the fourth Agent fell to the asphalt with a heavy thump.

Even though the "liquid" was gone, the sensory input remained on a lower scale. She knew in the back of her mind that Miranda Tam had hung up on her friend and was dialing the police; the portly man had turned to run back the way he'd come and barely made it to the corner before he started feeling chest pains. He thought he was going to die; the teenage boy had his cellphone out and was taping Xander nervously, trying not to be noticed, shushing his terrified girlfriend as she sobbingly pleaded with him to leave with her - this was the most scared she'd been in her 18 years of life; and the man who was having an affair...had driven off still unaware of the drama he'd left behind and slowly faded from her consciousness. After the gunfire, several people in the coffee shop, bookstore and other buildings surrounding the intersection had moved to either stand at the windows of the shops looking out or had actually trepidly exited the buildings to see what was going on.

And she was peripherally aware of them all in a distant way... in a familiar way. Something she'd always felt but hadn't noticed until now. God... what was happening to her? And then her eyes widened as she realized Xander had been right even as she heard him shout to her over his shoulder, dragging his new captive along - the guy couldn't breathe and he was likely going to pee himself - and Alex calling back to her like a man riding a bucking Tyrannosaurus Rex. And not just about the superpowers, but about the Agents as well. They were a bit harder to discern from regular people but from the emotional feedback, she knew they'd been surprised to see Xander.

Casting a quick glance around, she took in a deep breath and quickly followed after him having to wait to cross the street as a car drove by. When she finally got on the sidewalk where they'd walked together, she saw further down Alex/Xander had already made it to the alley and she broke into a run going as quick as her flat heels would allow. Breathing heavily when she finally reached it, she had not thought to question what she was doing up to this point. All she knew was that he was right and she'd be crazy to leave his side. And there was the added bonus that he promised her answers now and after what had just happened to her - an old lady in an apartment next door to the alley was setting out milk for a stray cat she was fond of because she was feeling especially lonely this morning waking up in an empty bed after her husband of 45 years had died a few... - she NEEDED them.

Being with Alex again had a strange effect on her now, especially after she'd decided he was a big fake and had already been planning what she was going to do once she left him. Well all her reasoning and suspicions seemed so foolish and inconsequential in light of watching 3 people die at his hand - or mind, rather - in less than 5 minutes. And it all was compounded by the fact that she could feel almost everything from the two of them - Xander and the man he held. Catching her breath she followed them into the alley, glancing back to check on the chaos they'd left behind. Nobody seemed to be coming in this direction and she knew the police were not here yet but were rushing to the scene.

And then Gwen had to stop herself from gasping when the tingling on her skin was accompanied by words. It wasn't like hearing him audibly but she was aware of what Xander was saying...inside. Turning back into the alley slowly, she caught his haughty smile and quirked an eyebrow at him. Then he began to deal with his knew captive and she stood trying to control her breathing and the new emotional awareness of everyone around them within a mile.

Even so, she nodded when he addressed her about telling him if she was feeling dizzy. She wasn't feeling dizzy per se, but it was very noisy around here. Concentrating on the men before her as the interrogation began, she felt something strange when regarding the "Agent". She couldn't "hear" anything and that either meant nothing was going on in his head - which she doubted - or it was being blocked somehow. What she could feel of his emotions seemed clouded. It wasn't a normal signature like what was on the walls around them or the dumpster - he was an empty space that occasionally felt things. Which was odd because he looked like a normal person and under any other circumstances, Gwen would be going off on Xander for attacking a civilian and bringing him into his super-powered-psycho drama. But after feeling just about everyone else she'd been in contact with the past several minutes, she could not ignore the absence of anything from him. And she could tell his denial was a lie.

Mentally stretching forth, she tried to press into him to get a hint of something but it was like sticking her hand through a hole in a wall and trying to feel the hole itself. She started to step forward to see if getting closer would help - maybe if I touch him - but Xander was in the part of his questioning that involved physically getting the guy to comply. Blinking away her piercing gaze, she stepped back and allowed him to work for now.

Having seen things happen before her very own eyes, she found herself believing the things that were being said and a calm descended upon her even as she felt Xander speaking inside again, his words drifting to her consciousness like an echo in a long tunnel. There was a certain satisfaction in being able to hear the other side of their conversations. And suddenly she found herself included in the interrogation, it having been established that they were after her for some reason. For a split second, she paused, looking from Xander to the Agent before stepping forward. More than anything she wanted to know why this was happening to her, but the more pressing question was the one Xander had posed: Why were they after her?

Not only was it important to know because of her personal safety but she was also curious and baffled. Sure this...gift or whatever one would call it, was valuable but was it really worth the trouble of sending so many people after her? Unless they wanted her for something. Staring into the man's eyes she tried again to feel what he was thinking but still felt that emptiness staring back at her.

With a sigh, she turned her head to look at Xander and said "The cops are on their way and will arrive from the northern street of that intersection. We've got less than 10 minutes." A smug smile tugged at her lips then having been let in on Xander's internal words and her tone was slightly teasing hinting at what she had heard. "But I'm sure you could handle them now that you finally have your gun."

Looking back at the Agent she frowned at him and asked, "What do you want with me? Once you have me what exactly were your orders at that point?" And then her voice grew irritated as she reached forward to grasp his head in both of her hands. "And why the fuck aren't you thinking anything? Why is your head empty?"

The physical contact did not change anything and her sky blue gaze searched his face for some hint of an internal dialogue. Nothing, and it creeped her the fuck out. It was all still fairly new to her but it was like it was something she'd always felt the presence of tucked away deep inside. And here was someone who was hollow; with all the internal noise still going on around her, this one smudge on her radar unsettled her. With a disgusted sigh, she let go of him and stepped back not wanting to touch him anymore.

The emptiness in the Agent's tone when he answered just made Gwen want to scream. Coupled with the fact that she couldn't feel anything from him, no thoughts and no emotion, it frustrated her beyond belief. Her life had just been altered drastically by the appearance of this man to the point where she now had people looking for her and she no longer felt safe or even sane anymore. She wanted to know the truth, she deserved to know. And this guy wasn't giving the answers up easily nor allowing her access to his brain so she could possibly find them on her own.

But when the answers did come...they didn't originate with him. Xander stepped forward and helped encourage the man loosen his tongue, and he mentioned a host - was he referring to her? - but then the guy ran out of cooperation and Xander was the one spouting the rest of the plan. At first it didn't seem abnormal to her that Xander knew about their plans; it made sense if they'd been hunted for a while for him to have some concept of why. When the Agent mentioned he was a "failed experiment" however, her eyes narrowed at the other who occupied Alex's body. If they were talking about implanting Agents into people's bodies to control their powers did that mean Xander was...

Alex apparently was quicker than her at figuring it out because abruptly they were locked back inside with an internal argument. And she could hear everything. From the emotions emanating off of Alex she knew why he was upset, especially in relation to the story they'd told about their old "friend" Peter. But still his panic and anger made her wonder if it would be safe for her to stay with him. They were being hunted by these men and Alex had an ex-Agent in his head. Thinking of her options however, she didn't really have a choice. Alex and Xander had information and right now, that was the most valuable thing to her survival.

Gwen flinched when they were interrupted by the Agent and Xander forcibly shut him up, and she rubbed her arms in uncertainty as they continued on after that. This wasn't like the semi-playful arguments they'd had before. Alex was finding out new and possible lethal information about the man who shared his head and body and it was an all out battle between them. Gwen wondered who would come out as the victor but instinctively knew that Alex being the original owner of the body would come out on top. Still the doubt had been there, so when he finally got Xander to shut up, she breathed a sigh of relief.

A burst of warm energy pulsed through her when Alex turned to her and in an authoritative voice told her they were leaving now. It was different than any way she'd seen him behave before, taking complete control over the situation and his body and her eyes were bright as she looked up into his face. She wasn't sure what to say about their argument - there was still a lot she didn't know about them both - so instead she followed him saying, "The police cars are about three - no, two now - blocks away," just before the distant wail of sirens could be heard. Now that Alex was the one taking charge, she felt even more magnetized to him than before, and it wasn't just the safety and information he provided. The only doubt she had in him now was whether it was a good idea to leave the Agent alive.

Stephanie sighed inwardly as Jason began to tear down the other lead Agent again once they were alone in the hallway - although that probably wasn't a factor in his decision, since he had little to no trouble voicing his concerns and objections while the French man was present. "Jason, don't make me-" and then she was interrupted by his abrupt stop and the glorious news that came from his lips. Apparently luck had not been on Benoit's side after all since he'd only had enough time to tell them the targets were headed in this direction before they were already breathing down their necks. Gwen.

Turning to Jason, she exhaled a breathe and said, "Alright, it's an opportunity. We'll take it. And maybe we can depend on our friends afterall. When Benoit engages his target, we'll snatch up Gwen. Hopefully the combination of our efforts will get Alexander to slip his defenses while we get away with Gwen. Everybody wins." Although still in deadpan her voice came out quickly in a lower tone and her eyes scanned the hallway for someplace to hide while still watching for Gwen and the other to show up. Inside, her heart hammered in her chest but outwardly, she was as calm as ever in the face of this unpredictable situation.



Mrs. Lambriola on the first floor apartment 2A, was sitting in her recliner with her curlers in while watching the Price is Right, glaring at the man who'd taken Bob Barker's place. 'Poser' she thought to herself and sneered at her television set even as she said aloud what the prices of things should be, totally involved in the game show as much as she hated the host. Nicole Payne has a broken radiator on the second floor and was busy giving Mr. Crags a blowjob in exchange for him fixing it. On an outer level, she hated the man and how disgusting he was, but on an inner deeper level that she wouldn't even admit to herself, the experience thrilled her; that was why pretending to enjoy it was easy for her. Mr. Crags licked his lips lasciviously as he watched her nubile form kneeling down before him, pert breasts peeking up at him from her cleavage. It wasn't against his moral code to make her do something like this for him to do his job and he hoped to eventually push her further at some point when something else would go wrong. In the apartment next door to them, David Rhodes was hunting, his clothes wilted on his body as he drenched them in sweat, his eyes wide and alert as he stalked in his apartment slowly. A fly swatter was held aloft in his hand and he inched his way quietly towards the window where all of his prey congregated, high pitched buzzings making him twitch, his mind reduced to focusing on this one task...

Gwen swayed on her feet as they entered the building, feeling wave after wave of thought and emotion fill her own body simultaneously as if they were her own. A heavy exhalation left her as she suddenly felt suffocated and tried to drown everyone out except the person she wanted to hear and feel. The alley had acted as a natural funnel, the tall brick walls blocking everything out except what drifted through the openings at either end. She'd been able to focus then. But following Alex out onto the street, it was like someone had turned up the volume in her head and it only got worse when they'd entered the apartment building.

As a result, she had trouble keeping up with him, having to stop occasionally to close her eyes and breathe. She'd almost completely forgotten about Alex and Xander even though she could feel them amidst the wave of others, arguing internally and she knew before she caught up with them that they were waiting for her. "I'm sorry," she said a little breathlessly, trying to smile at him weakly but her eyes glazing as another person's thought filled her mind. "It's...very loud in here." Audibly she was aware that there was barely any noise around them, most of the sounds that could be heard at all, muffled slightly through the walls.

She offered him another smile that was meant to be reassuring but abruptly turned away from him to hunch over the railing, a harsh gag rippling through her as Joy Hahn on the first floor, ate some crackers with bad cottage cheese on them, her own reflex triggered by the woman who was actually eating the stuff. For several moments, Gwen sat hunched over the railing, finally wiping the bit of drool that had drizzled down her lips when she'd thought she was going to throw up, before turning back to Alex. "I'm okay," she said slightly panting, her face flushed heatedly and nodding her head to try to convince him. "I'll be fine."

There was an argument in the apartment right beside the stairs, Amy Goodman and her husband Henry raging at each other through their living room. He was being accused and rightly so, Amy's voice shrill and attacking him viciously, hurling every insult she could think of when suddenly she was shut up by a smack to the face. Gwen could feel it, Henry's hand flying through the air like a wrecking ball, slamming into flesh and bone with destructive force and sending his wife careening across the room to fall upon a coffee table, breaking it instantly. Gwen on the other hand, as much as she could feel the blow blazing through her face, merely trembled against the stair railing, her nose bleeding again from the other nostril this time. Holding her fingers to her face, she gasped at Alex with a silent plea in her baby blue eyes. She could feel herself slipping with the current of thought and emotion, the rush of sensations threatening to pull her under and it terrified her.

It was like gravity was weighing her down, her body not wanting to respond to her commands. If I just lay here and not fight it...just let it all wash over me... she thought airily, sinking ever lower, a sensation of pleasure filling her as she started to let go, even as her head throbbed and pounded. Since he was the closest one to her, she of course heard Alex and Xander the loudest, even when he wasn't speaking, she could feel his concern for her and it warmed her heart. She didn't really know how to articulate what she was experiencing, except that she felt like she was several different people all at once right now. In the midst of the crowded thoughts it was like she was losing track of herself; a log o a river becoming one with the rushing current.

Then he was there, his soft voice speaking in her ear and his arm wrapping around her back. Feeling cemented by the physical sensations - the smell of the coffee he'd had, lightly coating his warm breath, his body close and heated through their layers of clothes - awareness of her own limbs came back to her and she rose with his help, nodding blindly at his suggestion of the elevator and upstairs. "I'm sorry," she said with an embarrassed smile, her face growing pale as they passed the Goodman's room on their way to the elevator - he was very sorry, he was so unbelievably sorry he'd done that and the shame filling him only increased his rage, "You see what you made me do?"

When they arrived and the doors to the elevator opened, Gwen left Alex's side to rush into the tiny box, leaning against the back wall. Alex entered behind her and the doors closed, and she let out a long breath, the waves of thought coming a bit muffled around the enclosed space, the air flow and hum of the machine somewhat soothing to her. Looking at Alex, she took her hand from her nose now that it had stopped bleeding, gingerly wiping the red stream from her upper lip.

"I don't know what happened," she said as she searched in her purse for something to wipe her fingers on. Sighing in exasperation, she pulled her note paper from her purse and used that to dab away the mess and clean her fingers. "All I know is, when Xander started killing people, I could suddenly feel and hear everyone's thoughts. Even Xander's." Thinking of that flood of sensation hitting her again, she began to dread arriving at their floor. Focusing on the sounds of the elevator, she started to slow her breathing, concentrating on their floor and her room specifically. If she could make it there, and close herself up in her own apartment, she might be fine--

"Something's wrong," she said, stepping away from the wall. Momentarily her focus had been shaken and all she heard was a flood of murmurs surrounding the elevator car. Again she calmed her breathing trying to ignore the ice cold feeling filling her body and chilling her bones, and concentrated. Like touching a hot stove the reaction was instant, her blue eyes widening with fear and her features contorting briefly in a mask of horror. Quickly stepping forward she stabbed the button for the floor beneath the one they both lived on, just as they were passing the one beneath it.

"We can't go up there!" she said frantically, her eyes searching Alex's face for belief as the doors opened to the adjacent floor. "Forget packing. We have to leave now!" A feeling of urgency filled her and she wasn't exactly sure what it meant or why she was feeling. All she knew was that if they went upstairs, something bad would happen.

The doors opened to reveal the floor she'd stopped them at and the flood of alien emotions was back again, but it did not erase the threat she felt, her fight/flight response kicking in and she remained alert as she finally left the elevator. Alex was by her side to ease her from it although it was unnecessary at the moment, the floor looming above their heads helping her stay focused and acting as a bit of a shield. The feeling was so strong, their rooms upstairs breathing down her neck like a savage and hungry monster, something she could not see but she could feel through every fiber of her being. She could not see or hear anything from that floor. It was like a hole in the world existed on top of their heads.

"Please," she whispered hoarsely. "You can't go up there..." Her voice faded as she looked into his eyes, realizing that he would not be convinced and also knowing that he was right about the things he needed. "It doesn't give me much faith in your abilities when you doubt yourself. Even Xander thinks you can't do it on your own!" It was a weak defense and she knew it.

She'd seen Xander work before and she knew how powerful he was when he put his mind to it - literally. Not that she doubted what Alex said about being able to handle that many Agents but this was all new to her and so far, it had been Xander who'd gotten them out of sticky situations. She couldn't do this on her own, facing these people who wanted her for something - to put someone in her head or use her powers for something; she wasn't exactly clear on which it was - or even facing what was happening to her. She would be very vulnerable right now without him. All she needed was for Alex and Xander to come back safely and quickly.

Stepping closer to him she looked into his eyes with her chin set stubbornly. "Xander," she said in a voice as commanding as she could muster with the pressure of everything still going on around her. She checked his eyes and waited a moment before grabbing two fistfuls of his shirt and pulling him close for a face smashing kiss. There was nothing nice or gentle about it, her lips moving against his fiercely, tongue lashing out wildly. Pulling away, her breasts rose and fell quickly in her shirt as she breathed heavily, continuing to stare fixedly into his eyes. "Don't be a fucking jerk. If he needs help don't wait for him to beg. Get what you need and come back to me. Both of you."

Easing her hands from his shirt, she stepped back and smoothed down the sides of her skirt in slight agitation, clearing her throat nervously. "I'll be waiting by the stairs, just in case you need me." It was unlikely, but she was embarrassed at the moment and unsure of what she was suppose to do. Gwen wasn't sure if a kiss would help persuade the ex-Agent - if that was what he was; again it was unclear with his own protestations on the subject - but it had been mostly a boost for the both of them...and herself. Running a hand through her hair, she tried not to think about how good he'd tasted - Xander sure knows how to make a good latte - as she continued to focus on the emptiness above, keeping the overflowing sensations from their fellow tenants at bay - Did anyone in this building work during the day?

The silence that wasn't silence deepened between them as Alex continued to stand there looking at her with obvious shock mixed with pleasure on his face. Gwen pressed her lips together in an embarrassed smile and adjusted her shirt sleeves briefly before finally smirking at him. "Oh, don't look so surprised, Mr. Charm--" her voice cut off as his hand drifted out and caught her neck, his fingers cradling the back of her throat gently as he pulled her close again. Looking up at him, her face was instantly serious and her body filled with warmth as she saw the familiar look of Xander gazing down at her. The one she'd been looking for. The one she'd addressed the kiss for. She realized she hadn't waited for him to resurface before she'd gone through with it and had kissed Alex instead.

Her heart pounded a rapid drum solo in her chest and her breathing came deeply as her eyes searched his, knowing they were both in there. Ever since he'd exploded in rage at her on the sidewalk this morning, Gwen had been a bit scared of Xander. He was a wild card with a darker sense of humor, darker demeanor and overall more dangerous personality than Alex. Mixed with that was a juvenile unpredictability that had a bit of charm as much as it possessed the unknown factor that set her heart to thumping as it was right now. Being held by him like this seemed a contradiction to his nature but she did not struggle or pull away as his lips softly pressed against hers. Needless to say, it was not what she expected.

If she'd had to imagine a scene such as this between her character and the one she'd made up to represent Xander in her story - "Mordeth" the demon - she would have made it a brutal, violently passionate moment. The female character would have never experienced such animal lust as she felt from his lips and would have hated him for taking the moment to violate her, raping her mouth with his own. And all the while she would be fighting against the weakness in her knees and the desire to be consumed by the beast that he was, melting in his arms.

As it actually played out however, Gwen was left with only the pleasanter emotions that his warm lips provided, moving against hers with an expert grace, leaving her slightly gasping with a swoon as they broke apart. And he remained close to whisper against her pulsating skin, her eyes closed and listening even as a blush filled her cheeks a ruby red. Her only response was a dazed, "Mm..." her gaze fluttering open to fixate on him as he turned and left her to jog up the stairs.

Left by herself in the hallway she mused silently, only spending half the time berating herself for her wild emotions running away with her. The rest of the time she spent tonguing her sensitive lips and trying to decide which kiss she liked better. She came to the conclusion that she'd have to give Alex a chance to redeem himself at some point and then sighed in irritation, blushing again at the fact that she'd even make up such a silly contest.


There was very little time left for discussion and luckily it was not necessary to urge Jason to get to work as he left her side to hide by the door to the stairwell. Internally, Stephanie marked another point for him to weigh against the billions of points that represented her anger and dislike for him at the moment. Striding forth, she hid in the alcove next to the elevator as she saw the light above it rising to this floor, her back pressed against the wall, hiding her from view of anyone who was inside the car. She noted however that it stopped at the floor beneath theirs and stayed there for several minutes before rising again and opening on their floor. Shock did not register on her features, even on the inside, as the doors opened to emit no one.

Looking at Jason in a blank manner, she watched as his form faded and the door to the stairs opened. Quickly, she ducked into the elevator car just before the doors were closing again, causing them to stay open. Hiding against the inner wall, she was able to stay hidden from sight, whereas before she would have been plainly seen from the stairwell. Stephanie's eyes narrowed as she watched a man she'd never seen before enter the hallway and walk down towards his room. Even just seeing him from behind, she knew it was Alexander returned home.

If he turned he would be able to plainly see her, so she relaxed in the elevator as if she were actually using it, ignoring him like a normal person would. It didn't matter because the doors closed before he could look in her direction. Smoothly, she moved forward to push the button for the next floor below where the elevator had stopped. Gwen was not with him, but she knew the target was in the building. Which meant he'd dropped her off somewhere. In all honesty, she felt nothing towards Benoit's target or Benoit himself for that matter. All she cared about was Gwen. As the elevator began to lower, she patted her pocket lightly to feel the outline of the electronic pen she possessed. One of it's many features was to act as a tazer and one shock from it would render a person helpless. This was it. She could feel victory coursing through her veins already. Screw Benoit and his precious Alexander. She wouldn't wait for Jason to catch up to her.

As Alex disappeared up the stairs, Gwen could still hear Xander's inner voice babbling on, the blushing smirk only leaving her face when he mentioned Agents upstairs. Was that the terrible feeling that she got from the upper floor? Did all Agents produce that black hole emptiness? Were they waiting for Alex in his apartment? Had they been in hers? "Please, be careful..." she murmured to herself as she felt him enter their hallway. But as he made his way to his room, it was like he held a lantern aloft in a darkened tunnel, illuminating the space and clearing it of that deep emptiness that had filled it a moment before. Except unlike a shadow/light relationship, as he and Xander passed through the hallway, the emptiness fled and stayed gone, dissipating like mist before him.

In it's place, she could feel the man in the apartment next to Alex's, sitting at his table and obsessively putting together a collage of words and letters he'd cut out of his magazines. Gerald Tomas was a paranoid schizophrenic and was busily looking for government implanted messages in the words he'd cut out of the latest Vanity Fair paired together with snippets from a Guns and Ammo ad. What was the Smoking man trying to tell him? As before, the thoughts and emotions of those who were in the building right now crowded in on her, but still she struggled to hang on to Alex and Xander, listening to their conversation. She would have sensed the other men in the room with him if she'd been given a moment or two longer, but just then the doors to the elevator opened...



Immediately, Stephanie's eyes latched onto the young woman standing alone in the hallway, her head whipping to look at the elevator as the doors opened to reveal the Agent standing inside. Her heart flipped delightedly to see those familiar features, the face she had a million pictures of and had studied extensively. The face she wanted to own. A bit of satisfaction filled her to see the way Gwen was dressed, the gaping open white blouse and black skirt instantly proving her theories correct. You little minx. Thought you could get some information if you dazzled him with a smile and some flesh, eh? Bet you got more than you bargained for.

All of this registered in a split second before the elevator doors had fully opened. Once they were in place, Stephanie's mask began to shift and change dramatically. "Ugh! Unbelievable!" standing tensely in the elevator, she groaned aloud in frustration, actual emotion filling her voice for once. With a sigh of exasperation, she stalked from the car into the hallway, starting to pull a ring of keys from her pocket, not seeming to pay too much attention to Gwen as she approached. When she came up to the other woman, her eyes came up as well and she stopped right before her.

"Hey, do you know the guy in 1F?" she asked, her voice holding a hint of annoyance but mostly filled with camaraderie as she addressed Gwen. She waited for the other woman to shake her head "No" before rolling her eyes and shaking her head with a sigh. "What a creep! For some reason, the mailman keeps switching the stuff in our boxes. Well, he did it again and I go up there to trade mail with that guy and he gives me this bit about 'Are you one of them? Why did you put those packages in my box if they weren't for me?' And the whole time he does nothing but stare at my chest."

Again she let out a harsh groan of frustration, knowing that if Gwen's powers had awakened she would be able to at least partly confirm her story. In addition to having researched Gwen extensively, Stephanie had files on everyone else in the building. She knew very well about Gerald Tomas's condition. "At least he didn't take anything except a few magazines and possibly junk mail. Hope he enjoys those sexy girly mags, the little perv." She ended with a small amused laugh and a shrug, finally regaining some good spirit it seemed.

There was something wrong here. Gwen could feel it. As soon as the woman stepped from the elevator, she'd expected to hear something from her internally, especially after the dramatic display she'd made. But it was like there was a cloud of static around her. Not emptiness like the Agent she'd encountered before, but a buzzing blankness that gave her a headache to focus on. At first it put Gwen on alert, as the internal emotions of her fellow tenants filled her head, but as the woman drew near, the static seemed to obliterate everything else. It was almost as if when she stopped to talk to Gwen, the cloud that surrounded her enveloped Gwen as well. It would have been soothing if the white noise itself did not feel like a Brillo pad being raked across the inside of her skull.

Listening to the woman who was beautiful and stately, she tried to stretch out her senses to see if her story held up, suspicion filling her with Alex gone. But there was nothing beyond the static except more static. Blinking a little harshly, Gwen stepped back from her to try and assuage the effect, but concern instantly registered on the woman's features and she stepped forward to offer her assistance. "Are you alright?" she asked, her hand lightly touching Gwen's elbow causing her to jerk at the contact. "I'm sorry..." She seemed a bit hurt and unsure of how to help her.

"No, you're fine," Gwen said, trying to smile at her reassuringly. "I'm just feeling a little light-headed...and queasy."

Like magic, the static seemed to subside somewhat and Gwen could hear a bit of the woman's thoughts. All she heard however was an echo as the woman spoke. Do you live on this floor? "Do you live on this floor?" she asked, glancing down the hallway. I could help you to your apartment. "I could help you to your apartment."

"No, I live up a floor," Gwen said with a shake of her head, looking at the woman with a narrowed eye. This wasn't right. People didn't think like that. And the emotion coming off her was the same; if her face looked concerned, Gwen felt a sympathetic worry from her; if her face took a thoughtful expression, her inner emotions translated a systematic concentration. But it all felt very shallow, every emotion and thought like a script she was reading from and only went about face deep. Just beyond these thoughts Gwen could hear the low hum of that awful static. What is that?

Well, my apartment is just over there, you can come inside for a moment and gather yourself. "Well," Stephanie said glancing back at Gwen from her perusal of the hallway and the closed doors that faced them. "My apartment is just over there, you can come inside for a moment and gather yourself."

God, this is really annoying, she thought as she rubbed her hand on her forehead trying to stay the echo. While Gwen was distracted doing that, Stephanie made a a small, surreptitious gesture towards where she knew Jason could see, signaling for him to wait. I've got this, she thought to herself with an internal smirk and Gwen was none the wiser for the static that kept her from seeing or hearing anything Stephanie really thought and felt.

With the static mostly gone right now, Gwen took the moment to see if she could reach Gerald's mind again. Reaching out mentally, her mind was filled with the man's rambling thoughts - Must find the secret code. Stupid woman! Stupid woman! Thinks she owns the messages in my head! Nice try! You cannot have them! Where is it? Aha! "75 Sexy Tips-On How To Clean Your Weapon" That means something!!! - and she retracted as much as she could after she'd gotten the gist of his thoughts.

The woman he referred to was real, she sensed, not someone in the magazines he was reading, but wading through the irrational flow of thought, she could not determine who exactly he was talking about. She assumed he meant the woman standing before her and instantly relaxed her guard, despite that puzzling white noise and the annoying echo of thought. What she didn't know however, was that Gerald Tomas had gotten a phone call from his mother this morning to remind him to take his meds. Not having taken them the day before, he'd hung up on her prematurely, thinking that she was a spy.

"No, thank you, but I think I'll be alright," Gwen said, giving the woman another polite smile, now assuming she was just a friendly person offering assistance. Reaching out mentally she tried to see if Alex was coming back yet and heard Xander's familiar voice talking both inside and out...to someone with a foreign accent in his room. Trembling, she felt a chill run through her as she heard the men's conversation and felt the emotion coming off of the smoking man's body.

"Look at you, you're shaking like a leaf," Stephanie said in a crooning voice, touching Gwen's arm again and pleased when the young woman did not flinch away this time. She knew Gwen would have trouble being convinced, so she was just waiting for an opportunity now that she was close enough to do something. Reaching into her pocket where the pen was, she jangled the keys lightly to make it seem like that was what she was reaching for.

"I can't," Gwen said, shaking her head, and trying to smile politely again. Something had happened upstairs; Had Xander hurt someone? She did not feel the familiar rush of power, so she assumed he'd done something more physical. With the static buzzing lightly in her ear and the woman parroting everything she was thinking in her own head, it was a bit difficult to concentrate on anything else. "I'm waiting for someone." She turned to look at the stairwell, an urgency in her bones, hoping he'd arrive soon, if nothing else but to assure her he was alright. She could not shake this unsettling feeling. He needs me-Now!

From behind her, a sliver of thought drifted in her mind, an image of something small, slender and metal surging through the air towards her, a split second before the thing actually came, Gwen's hand flying up as she turned to knock it from the golden woman's fingers. "What the hell?" Gwen asked as the pen clattered to the floor by the wall. Now that she was facing her again, Gwen was met with the emotionless mask and the deep and all-consuming void in the woman's head. Her eyes opened wide and she felt her insides turn to ice. "You're..." She could not find the voice to complete the thought suddenly, but she knew what that emptiness meant. An Agent!

Stephanie internally smiled as the realization bloomed on Gwen's features, pleased to see the tension rippling back into place through every muscle of her body. Her charade had been effective. But now it was over and the time for games was passed. Her arm, like a lightning flash, whipped out with deadly force towards Gwen's stomach aiming for under her rib cage, the move intended to hit her and stun her.

Stephanie's echo was still on though and Gwen felt the woman's fist moving through the air a few seconds before it actually reached her, causing her to jump back reflexively, the blow hitting her stomach with less force than was intended. With the air that left Gwen's lungs in a quick burst anyways, that was saying a lot. Shock rippled through the lead Agent's internal layers and quickly she corrected her error, the control she had over her emotions slipping firmly into place.

Gwen stumbled back hunched over and coughing, trying to get away without turning her back on the woman who steadily approached her, that faceless mask making her look like a robot as she descended upon her again with violent force. Remembering her self-defense classes, Gwen tried her best to block the attacks, but the woman was quick, faster than should be possible for a human body. And the blows glided past her defenses knocking her back until she was up against the wall in the corner by the stairs. As much as her hands flew out to counter the attacks that the Agent rained down upon her, it didn't seem to have an effect. The woman wasn't even breaking a sweat it seemed. So, in desperation, Gwen tried something desperate, her left fist flying out low to catch Stephanie in the gut. The Agent saw it however and reacted, her arm slicing down to chop against Gwen's, leaving herself vulnerable to the other fist that came flying up to her face.

Gwen's right hook smashed against Stephanie's cheek causing her to stumble backwards, shaking her head as her face filled with a burning numbness and her head swam a little. Taking the opportunity, Gwen dived forward to ram her knee into the other woman's stomach, her hands going around her to press her body into the blow. Stephanie recovered quickly however and the blow missed it's target as she side-stepped. Reaching out, she grabbed a fistful of Gwen's hair and yanked it harshly, and aimed her fingers, straight out and together like a knife, for Gwen's throat. She definitely was breathing harder now.

Stephanie was idly aware of the other fight going on in the hallway with them but did not break her focus as her arm drew back and started moving swiftly through the air, aiming for Gwen's neck. She was too busy relishing this moment of assured victory, enough force in the blow to stun the target, so she did not notice Xander until he was already there sandwiched between them. The Agent had only a moment for her eyes to widen before she felt the searing pulse fill her skull from the fixated stare he gave her. Rooted in place, she stared dazed as if left standing in a coma.

Gwen was almost certain she was going to die before Xander appeared and a gasp of relief left her. The familiar warmth of his power rippled through her own mind as he looked into the woman's eyes and she felt the Agent's mind fade like a phone's busy signal. His arm wrapped around her then and he was pulling her away but not before the wretched woman's fingers tugged violently on her scalp with the motion. A sharp yelp escaped her throat before finally her hair pulled free of the Agent's claw-like grasp and Xander was running while practically carrying her towards the stairs. Listening to their conversation, she didn't realize anything was different about him at first until she heard Alex's voice inside like she would have Xander's.

Despite the beating she'd received, she struggled out of his hold and ran on her own as they entered the stairwell, adrenaline pumping through her and the promise of escape giving her feet wings. "What the hell happened?" she couldn't help asking as they fled down the stairs 3 steps at a time. "What happens in 10 minutes?" her voice came out breathlessly and she couldn't help casting a quick glance behind them to see if anyone was following. The stairs appeared empty.

It had been hard during her fight with Stephanie - at the appearance of Xander, some of the woman's defenses had fallen and she now knew the Agent's name - to sense anything other than what was happening right in front of her, so she didn't understand why Xander was so exhausted now or if it was something that normally happened when he took over for too long. Knowing his plan, she felt a little more at ease, flying down the stairs and shadowing him closely. The internal voices of those who were in the building right now swam through her mind but did not crowd her like before, her heart thundering in her ears and drowning them all out.

Within minutes they'd reached the lobby and her face brightened considerably to see the front doors, afternoon light shining through the windows like a beacon of salvation. No sounds of pursuit came from the stairs behind them. They were going to get away!

Despite their escape from threat, fear gripped Gwen's heart in a vice as Xander responded to her questions, with a little prodding from Alex on the inside. It was so strange to hear Alex speaking internally and she worried that she might not see him again with the way their discussion was going. One consolation was that she could still feel his emotions even though he'd essentially switched seats with Xander. But other than emotions, she could not detect any of Xander's thoughts and she supposed it had something to do with them sharing a head, although she wasn't sure why that would be.

Fatigue came off of Xander in waves and it only made Gwen feel more on edge knowing that it meant they had a time limit, her eyes searching for a taxi as soon as they left the building. Looking around however, she noticed the empty street and a shiver ran through her. Distantly, she was aware of the commotion still going on further down in front of the coffee shop and knew that several people had gathered on the edge of a police barricade to gawk at the dead bodies. A news crew had arrived as well as several police cars and Roasters had been shut down temporarily as the police dealt with the crises right on it's doorstep. They did not know yet what had happened, despite eyewitnesses and she let out a breath of relief.

Turning back to Xander, she caught up quickly on their conversation and continued to follow them silently as they approached the taxi together. Escape was almost assured now, if only she understood what was going to happen. Would it be like before when Xander would take over whenever he felt like? Could Alex do that? Now that Xander was the main one, and he got tired so easily, what did that mean for Alex? Would she be left alone while he was asleep or whatever? Thinking of that only brought up more fears if in the future at some point she encountered Agents while Xander was recharging or whatever the hell he did. If they were anything like Ms. Black Hole, Gwen would get them all killed trying to protect him.

Xander's discussion of going into a coma did not inspire any confidence in her, but she felt a small burst of warmth at the protective tone of his voice as he promised to watch over her. As the taxi stopped and their conversation continued, Gwen was made aware of not only how her relationship to them had changed but how internally they'd changed as well. The dynamic had been fully switched it seemed, and whereas Gwen felt doubt and then acceptance flowing through Alex as he reasoned things out, Xander said nothing about it. A second later he made it clear why he hadn't, although at first, Gwen had thought that it was the exhaustion making him not care enough to comment on everything like he had before.

When they were at the cab, Xander opened the door for her and pressed a bunch of bills into her hand, giving her instructions on what to do with the money. Looking into his eyes, that fear she felt gripped her again at the prospect of having to leave him behind if Agents came upon them again. She didn't know if she'd be able to do that, but nodded her head in stalwart agreement. At his last comments, she regained a bit of her good spirits and said, "Watching you humiliate a coffee shop employee repeatedly until there's nothing even resembling human dignity left, then having you perform lobotomies in the middle of an intersection while I'm suddenly transported inside everybody's heads and almost getting killed by a walking black hole; I'm having the time of my life. You definitely know how to show a girl a good time. Can't wait for the second date."

Entering the cab she immediately encountered the thoughts of Salvatore Robinson, who was a stocky man of Italian ethnicity, with a head of curly black hair, wiry ringlets sticking out from under his cap, and grizzly mutton chops on his round cheeks. He was having a pretty decent day compared to most, encountering only a little traffic so far this morning and afternoon, and the fares he'd been transporting had gone far distances and paid him lots of money. He'd watched as the bills had passed between their hands through the car's windows and he was already crossing his fingers that he'd be able to make a large percentage of that wad his.

Gwen smiled a little bit until a new thought entered her mind, the expression frozen on her face and her whole body growing tense. Even from outside the building, she could feel that emptiness inside Stephanie stir, and when it started to move, her eyes went wide and a gasp was ripped from her throat. She was still sitting in the first seat of the cab when she turned to Xander standing in the doorway, waiting for her to move over, and she grabbed a fistful of his shirt tugging on him frantically. "Get in! Get in!" she urged in a panicked tone, her bottom scooting over to occupy the other seat in the back of the taxi as Xander followed her in and closed the door.

Turning to the cab driver, she reached through the little window between the front and back seats, her hand grabbing onto Salvatore's shoulder and jerking him forward and backward, practically hopping in her seat. "Drive, Sal! Drive!" Shock and confusion filled the man but he did as he was told with minimal sputtered protest, peeling away from the curb with a small screech of tires.



Blinking several times and breathing in deeply, Stephanie became aware of her surroundings again, the mask she wore instantly moved back into place as she regarded the empty hallway. A little ways away she noticed Jason still lying upon the ground passed out and anger filled her to realize Gwen had gotten away again. Running over to the window at the end of the hallway, she peered out onto the street just in time to see the taxi disappear around the corner and out of sight.

That stupid Frenchman! Of course he failed to capture his target again and not only that, he'd failed to occupy Alexander's attention long enough for her and Jason to capture their own target. Red filled her vision, the immovable blank features of her face remaining stoic as she stared down at Jason's body. This had been exactly what she'd predicted would happen! But no! The son of a bitch had insisted they take the opportunity to try and capture Gwen now! The idiot!

Placidly, she walked over to where Gwen had knocked her electric pen by the wall of the hallway and bent to pick it up. An electric buzzing started up as she turned it on and the tip danced with blue bolts of energy, like wiry strands of hair, branching out and disappearing in a constant ripple. Walking over to Jason's body, she turned him over onto his back and brought the pen near. She would hurt him with it! She would hurt him so bad, whatever Alexander did to him would seem like fucking Christmas morning! Her chest rose and fell and internally she grit her teeth before the rage exploded inside of her and she clicked another button on the pen, switching out the taser for a knife. It would be much more merciful if she just made sure the imbecile did not EVER wake up again.

She had the blade against his throat and was about to apply pressure when she stopped herself. No. This was as much her failure as it was his. She'd taken the opportunity because she'd wanted to and although it had been his idea - it would feel so good right now to plunge this into his flesh and watch the blood gush out - she could not blame him solely. SHE was the one in charge and in the end, she'd been the one to make the decision. And she'd been wrong.

Clicking the buttons on the pen, the knife retracted and it was a regular pen again. Tucking it away into her pocket, she slapped him full force across the face. "Get up," she said without anger or inflection. "We need to go have a talk with Benoit and I'm not going to wait for your lazy ass to wake up."

The tension did not leave her as they sped away from that hollow woman and Gwen stayed perched on the edge of her seat until they'd gone for a mile and she could no longer sense their apartment building. With a small sigh, she slowly sat back in her seat, the cushion underneath her and behind her back feeling odd after running and being so tense for the last hour or so. Being stationary had become an alien feeling. At Xander's words, she turned to smile at him, resting her head back against the headrest and said, "Beaches anywhere will do. I know you just want to see me in my bikini." She looked away when the thought of him without a shirt on flashed in her mind.

With the urgency he'd been made to leave the street he'd picked them up on, Sal felt a little like he was in an action movie or something. It was an exhilarating feeling. If black cars started chasing them and people started shooting at them however, he would not hesitate to stop the taxi and run as fast as he could away from these fares. Sal was about to ask where he was suppose to be taking them, but listening to their conversation, he blanched a little when Xander said "10 cities away". He could do that, but it would take him way out of the way. He was heading south right now and so far, neither the man nor the woman had said anything, so he kept heading in this direction, letting the meter run.

"Just keep heading south," Gwen said, sitting forward in her seat to speak through the window. "I'll tell you when we wish to stop."

She knew she'd startled him by suddenly addressing him with what he'd been thinking, but he smiled and nodded his head. "Will do, Miss." As long as they were willing to pay the full amount once they arrived, it was not a problem.

By the time Gwen had sat back in her seat and turned to Xander again, he had his eyes closed and she could feel him sleeping. In slumber, his face relaxed and his eye shut, giving him such a peaceful and almost vulnerable appearance. It stirred a bit of sympathy within her to realize, today had been one of the scariest, most exciting day of her life. Both he and Alex dealt with this stuff on a regular basis and rolled with the punches as they came and she knew it was hard on them. But now they had her and she wasn't sure if it was a good thing to share the burden with someone or if she'd become a burden for them herself.

Looking him over, her hand drifted out to lightly caress the side of his face, feeling his warm skin beneath her fingertips and then the stubble of his cheek and chin as her hand moved lower to his jawline. When Alex's voice sounded in her head, she lowered her arm and blinked at him before turning back to the front of the cab and closing the little window between the seats.

Turning back to him, she softly said, "I can hear you. You're not alone." Trying to comfort him in some way she took the sleeping Xander's hand in her own and interlaced their fingers. She wasn't sure if he could feel it, but just in case he couldn't, she'd keep her touches to a minimum, lest she wake Xander up.

Still, she couldn't help drawing closer to him as the taxi rumbled around them, eating stretches of road in gulps until they'd made it out of town and onto the highway. "You know, it's funny when I think of how all of this started," she said with a small, amused quirk of her lips. "I was fine before I met you. Just a normal person, like everybody else. Nothing special about me." Biting her lip around an ironic smile and blush she said, "I was planning on writing a book about you. You and Xander. I thought you had a split personality or something - it's strange. Even then I could somewhat sense when he was talking to you. In just a few hours, my attempt to study you has not only been made to seem foolish but completely irrelevant when faced with reality."

For a moment she paused as she felt Sal cock an eyebrow at her in the rearview mirror. Who was she talking to? The guy was asleep wasn't he? But she ignored him, not embarrassed in the least that he thought she was talking to herself. "That's all over now, isn't it?" she asked finally. "My writing. I can't go back to that now. I mean, I'm like you, right? I won't be able to ever stop running will I?" She looked at him then, giving him a sad smile even though he probably couldn't see it right now.



Of course, the first thing on her colleague's mind was his precious suit. Not that their target was missing. No, it would be too much to ask for him to consider that worthy of worrying about. His tone of voice made her reconsider stabbing him in the throat. He redeemed himself quickly, however, when he mentioned the goggles would be traceable. They hadn't lost her this time. As long as she stayed with Alexander - and she would; she depended too much upon him for survival - they would be able to find her again.

At the sound of Benoit's voice, she turned to regard him blankly. At first, she felt the urge to explode on him for ruining her plan, but stopped herself when she realized that was her fault too. Not only had she not gone the smarter way and waited to track the pair when they'd make their escape from Benoit, but she'd changed the plan without telling him. There hadn't been enough time, but what she'd done had been completely reckless and uncoordinated. Like a child eager for a treat, she'd been too excited about the prospect of getting what she wanted without properly thinking everything through. And her incompetence in the face of this other lead Agent stung harshly. Especially with his mocking words.

"I take full responsibility for this failure to capture my target," she said resolutely, her back straight as a rod of iron. "I admit, I became too eager to get my hands on her when I learned that she'd entered the building." She paused, casting a glance at Jason before addressing the French Agents. "I will not make the same mistake again."

Alex's internal words echoing in her head made her relax even more, soothing the worry she'd felt. "Maybe I could help you with that," she said with a smile. "I think I'll be able to recognize the female Agent's signature if she comes after us. Maybe even the one in your apartment, although I didn't hear too much from him at the time. I was distracted. I may still be able to sense them coming before they reach us and it could help us get away without even encountering them again."

Sal strained to hear the conversation in the back of the cab as he continued to propel them further away from those who sought them, but Gwen did not worry too much about it. The plastic pane of the window between them muffled everything to such a degree, he wasn't able to make sense of any of it. For now, she allowed him to be curious as long as it did not affect them.

At Alex's question, Gwen sat up a little, her blue eyes looking Xander's body - Alex's actually - up and down. With the car continuously moving, the thoughts of those outside its metal frame came in short bursts, one immediately after the other, like someone taking a piece from a dozen different puzzles and tossing them at her. Needless to say, she did not feel overwhelmed at the moment.

Gingerly, she concentrated on him with all of her will, slowing her breathing and shoving the thoughts of the nosy cab driver out of her mind. She could feel her hand touching his from his own senses, her fingers cool and soft in his stronger hold. His arms, limp for now, were filled with threatening energy, and lightly muscled, blood flowing through his veins warmly. She could feel the small slivers of glass still embedded in the side of his hand - what happened? - and the broken toe and she wondered how he'd gotten them. The wounds themselves did not tell her anything about what had occurred but she could sense, even though he was asleep, that it was painful - although, admittedly, it was more like an annoyance to Xander. His chest rose and fell slowly, lungs expanding with new air, her chest rising and falling with his, as if they were her lungs. His heart was the same, it's beat slow and steady now, pulsating through her body like a large bell ringing. Even though she confirmed he was breathing and well, she took the moment to explore further, her senses moving deeper into his mind.

His thoughts were hidden from her but she could feel his emotions rising up to meet her like waves against a beach. There was the exhaustion of course, eased by the sleep that was light - even in repose unwilling or unable to let his guard down. There was a slight concern for her and a bit of worry about his current condition, but they were not strong emotions. She couldn't tell if it was because he was asleep right now or if he really did not consider these things all that important. Or maybe she was missing pieces? Pushing even further, a smile touched her lips as she felt Alex's presence deep inside the recesses of his mind. He was definitely worried about her and his new position placed on the inside looking out and he was waiting for her answer still.

With a sigh, she sat back and said, "He's breathing fine and he's still there, rarin' to go at a moments notice. I still can't hear his thoughts though. I can feel some of his emotions since the change, but I can't make out anything like I do with other people." She got a mischievous look on her face as she smirked at him. "You on the other hand, are transparent as ever. I saw what came to mind when I made that bikini comment. Slow-motion running? Really?" She giggled happily and shook her head in an amused fashion causing Sal to look into the mirror again at the sound. When the hilarity passed, she said, "But I think we need to do something about your toe. Maybe we could stop by a hospital before we settle for the night. Or maybe I could just play nurse for you."



The professional understanding in Benoit's voice helped her relax a bit more, although outwardly there was no change. He also seemed to extend a bit of that same businesslike sympathy towards Jason, and she did not look at him again when his trouble with the suit was mentioned. She admitted that she was only partially aware of what his equipment was capable of, and she'd been completely unaware of it's effects on her colleague. Now she understood his first concern being the goggles, but it didn't make her feel anything but slightly less annoyed.

What Benoit said next really shocked her and she schooled her features viciously to not let any of her surprise show or the sudden paranoia that came with it. He was definitely extending the olive branch farther than she would have expected, and although she'd been going to ask him again if they could join forces, the fact that he brought it up first made her narrow her gaze at him. Stephanie had expected to need to fight him about it but here he was, willing to team up. His offering up information made her even more suspicious and it only grew when he asked about Gwen's profile again, even after he assured her he was not trying to double cross her.

This failure only reinforced her original desire to join forces with him, knowing that if they did not at least coordinate their efforts, it would allow Gwen and Alexander to slip through their fingers again and again. But she wasn't sure she altogether trusted him yet, not after the way he'd treated them before. This sharing and offering of help and even the sympathy seemed out of character and she feared it was an act and he'd take what he wanted and dump her and Jason to fend for themselves again. As it stood, she and Jason would get nowhere if they continued to walk blindly into Alexander over and over, so she needed to trust him just enough to get what she wanted and assure that he kept his bargain.

'Alright," she finally said in her usual monotone. "I accept your offer, only on the basis that we have a better chance of success by coordinating our efforts. I hope you're not offended if I ask for information on Alexander before I give you a clearer idea on my target's abilities. It's purely personal. I hope you understand. In return, I will give you most, if not everything I have on her. And the equipment necessary to guard against his powers is a must and brings me to my first question: What is it he can do? Whatever he did to both my Agent and I, it was temporary. I'm assuming it was not full power, yes? I would also like to know more about the stolen property he possesses or rather IS. He was an Agency project?"

The empty expression on her face did not shift or change as he spoke and she took the information in. It was always interesting to hear about the abilities of different cases when they offered that information at all. Two cases that she'd worked on before being assigned to Gwen had been with a boy who could teleport and a young woman who could control fire. So, Alexander "fried people's minds"? It was intriguing to say the least but her interest only went far enough to realize that protective eyewear would be absolutely necessary if they were going to encounter him again.

At the mention of the rest of her team, she realized immediately to whom he was referring. All of them had been working undercover and were her main source of information on Gwen, and they'd been ordered to await Jason's command to move in and assist him in bringing the target in. When he'd been disabled the night before, they must have known something was wrong and taken action. She already knew most of them were dead now and that Alexander was the cause.

Listening to the story he told, it illuminated things even further for her about the nature of the man Gwen was keeping company with. The split mind thing she kind of already knew about from reading Gwen's story and talking with Jason, but Benoit's history lesson offered her more background on how it had happened and the degree of what they were dealing with. Jason's input was also interesting and she looked at him for a second to hear the slight worried tone in his voice - he hid it well, but she caught it anyway and she wondered if she'd need to kill him if he screwed up again. The torture of waiting for something inevitable to happen and watching the ticking clock might be better punishment. Ignoring the juvenile squabbling between the two men, she looked Benoit over with new eyes.

Again, she had fully expected to meet resistance to her inquiries, as he'd reacted towards them before, but he was being surprisingly cooperative. He still might not be sincere about this whole teamwork thing, but he was making a good show of it at least. Her dull green eyes traveled over his features, searching for those telltale weaknesses that would confirm her suspicions. His long angular face was lightly aged and he had a large nose, but it fit his face well as did his ears, which were a bit big on each side of his head. The cigarette he held dipped between his full and smoothly curved lips that always held a haughty smirk under the surface and now blew out a thin cloud of cancer with a small pucker of the plush flesh. The eyes were the most telling feature of the face and his were no different, small but expressive, topped by slender eyebrows that curved and moved with sophisticated emotion. But the expression he held was not telling her anything, that he was lying or genuine, so she took the ambiguity of his features for what it was and did not let her guard down. Even so, having finished her inspection in the span of 2-3 seconds, she decided he was a man she could possibly grow to like if they ended up benefiting from this together. Maybe.

"Thank you, Benoit" she said with a hinted nod of her head. "This information will help us be more prepared when we encounter them again. I do not have any other questions about him at this time other than about the necessary equipment, of course. But other than that, I think we're brought up to speed. As for Gwen, there's not much to tell about her. She can hear and sense everything you think and feel as if they were her own thoughts and emotions. She may eventually be able to manipulate people's thoughts and even their memories, but as of right now, I do not think it's something we'll need to worry about. Everything is still pretty new and from my encounter with her, it is clear that she has very little control over the flow."

She paused then, her eyes growing a bit distant as she thought back over their fight and felt an electric thrill course through her internal layers. It had been such a rush to perform for her target, to see her in the flesh and talk with her face to face. Many nights she'd stayed up late imagining what it would be like to meet her and the reality had been everything she'd dreamed of and more. She was so innocent, so raw and unpolished. Stephanie's blocking ability should have been an even match for Gwen with her abilities at full power, but as it was, she'd been shoved around like a rag-doll and manipulated by the Agent. Still, there were several times she'd broken through Stephanie's defenses and it filled her with a sense of pride and euphoria to see the young woman get the upper hand occasionally. If Alexander had not interfered, she would have had her and it would not have felt that it had been too easy. That in itself was satisfying, but she could not wait for the rematch. Next time, Gwen would not be so lucky.

Her eyes refocused on Benoit and she picked up where she left off in her profile, barely missing a beat. "After many tried methods, the most successful way I've found to counter her abilities is the Emotion Desensitization Training that the Agents on her case go through. It deals with separating the emotions and dividing consciousness by building layers within the mind and putting up internal walls to block her sight." She sighed boredly before asking, "Anything else you'd like to know, or are we done trading information now?" There was a barely detectable energy about her, an eagerness for the Round two she so dearly deserved.


Laughter bubbled up inside of Gwen at the nervous denials Alex put forth, the image of herself, body lightly tanned and stomach exposed to the sun, running across sand, a tiny, tropical floral print triangle of cloth tied over each slowly bouncing breast. She squirmed in her seat beside him as the laughter grew so deep she was gasping silently, when the image turned into a sexy nurse outfit set in the same scene. A lot of her joy came from how flattering his thoughts of her were - even though they were a bit pervy, she didn't mind - but also from how flustered he got when she mentioned she knew about it. Even locked inside as he was, he was the same as he'd been before, and it delighted her to tease him this way.

"Um, Ma'am?" Sal asked a bit nervously, his voice barely coming through the window. "Are you alright?" This whole thing seemed interesting and exciting at first, but as soon as the guy had gone to sleep, things just kept getting weirder. He was starting to doubt the woman was right in the head.

"Yes, I'm fine," Gwen said, still slightly gasping and giggling, but catching her breath. "Just ignore me. I'm okay." Letting out a loud sigh finally regaining her composure, she turned back to Xander as Alex brought up going to a hospital. No, she supposed it wouldn't be a safe time to go to somewhere so public. Reaching out mentally, she touched his foot again and realized it wasn't too bad, but any more running on it would probably not be a good idea. At his mention of the bag, she reached over and set it on the other side of her before lifting up Xander's leg onto her lap. They would have at least an hour before they got far enough away to feel safe, so she thought she might as well check it out now.

When he inquired about her condition, she smiled warmly in his direction, faced with Xander's closed eyes still. Due to her defense classes, Gwen had been able to counter at least some of Stephanie's attacks, but a few blows had hit their mark. Her stomach and sides were littered with bruises and her arms were sore from where the female Agent had been blocked, but she didn't think anything was broken. Touching the top of her head gingerly, she hissed a little as her scalp throbbed with the contact. Her hand came away without any blood, but it felt like the woman had torn a piece of her skull off.

"I'll live," she said with a shrug, starting to maneuver his shoe off the offending foot. "A few scrapes and bruises, but nothing to cry about. The bitch really did a number on my hair follicles though. And there is the slight headache from having my head filled with several hundred people today." She had his shoe off and had removed his sock before the guilt filling him even registered to her, but by that time, she was too distracted by the sight that met her to concern herself with that right now.

"Holy shit!" she said in shock, her eyes wide with concern as she gazed down at the darkly purple and blue toe on his left foot. The toe itself was swollen and crookedly arched and she hissed a little under her breath as she began to search the bag for the gauze he'd spoken of. In her search, she found the picture of his parents and paused to look at it for a moment, a warm feeling filling her to see such a sentimental item in his possession. Tucking it back into the bag, she finally pulled out the roll of loosely woven fabric and set about wrapping his foot as best she could, while Sal continued to watch with nosy interest from his rearview mirror.

Well, things were going well. He might be sincere about this afterall, but really only time would tell. Her facial expression stayed frozen as she accepted the eyewear Benoit's Agent gave her and she opened them to look them over with almost perceptible interest. She only looked up again when Benoit began explaining how they worked against his target, her eyes meeting his again with a dull stare. The continued animosity shared between the larger man and Jason was purposefully ignored by her but it did not go unnoticed and she was starting to lose patience with her colleague.

His offering for her to do research on whatever screw-up Alexander did to test out the specialized equipment against himself did not interest her in the least. "I do not find things funny," she said in a monotone voice that left no doubt that what she said was true. She folded up the sunglasses and tucked them away inside her golden yellow suit jacket, revealing a modest and plain white, silk shirt underneath it. At his suggestion for getting lunch before pursuing the pair, irritation filled her but did not show. Now she was beginning to understand why Alexander had slipped from his grasp so many times all these years. She did admit she was hungry, the afternoon growing long and her energy bar having been eaten. But with the way Benoit spoke, she doubted they'd be stopping somewhere quick on the road while chasing after the targets.

The internal clock ticked at her urgently and she could feel Gwen getting further and further away with every passing second. Not that she doubted the other Agent's word on how the lenses worked, she was just incredibly impatient. Upon realizing this, she stopped and took in a deep breath letting it out slowly through her nose. This eagerness had been what had let Gwen get away in the first place. She needed to calm down and take a lesson from the more experienced Agent. Of course, the man did not like losing his target over and over again. He would have learned by now the most efficient way to pursue Alexander and would not willfully attempt to sabotage himself, because if he was anything like her, he was a perfectionist and obsessed with his case and he would seek to improve himself at every opportunity.

Going slower like this and taking the time to plan was no doubt a better solution than rashly barreling ahead and coming up with a plan on the spot. She needed to be patient. After seeing Gwen and being able to touch her, it was difficult to accept that answer. She'd been right within reach and if they moved now she would be within Stephanie's grasp again. Her training kicked in to stifle the urge to leave Benoit and his Agent and pursue Gwen by herself, but still it rumbled deep within her in a cloud of malcontent. "That sounds wonderful," she finally responded with as much excitement as the average person would have about the prospect of watching paint dry to pass the time. Glancing at Jason for probably only the third or fourth time since this conversation began, she noticed the pallor of his cheeks and the weary look on his face. Stephanie assumed it had something to do with the goggles he'd lost - if what Benoit said about the suit was true - but she felt little to no sympathy. He was her partner on this case but her feelings were divided about his performance and she still felt the urge to blame him for nearly everything that had happened so far.



"Welllll..." Gwen said with a sigh as she started to straighten the toe out and tape it with the small roll of medical tape that came with the gauze. "There's no bones protruding from the skin or anything. And I can probably set it with something when we get to the hotel - this tape and gauze wrapping isn't gonna do the trick. But if I do that, I'm not sure if your shoe will fit again afterward. And it looks really ugly too." She shook her head with a small breathy laugh at that, and tapped the top of his foot lightly after she'd finished taping it up, satisfied with the result. As a temporary solution, it would do.

Her hands unrolling the gauze around his foot slowed and stopped when he mentioned her old job and sending in her two weeks notice. For the past few months, she'd been living off of her savings compiled from the money she'd made with the success of her book series. Since she hardly went anywhere and ate cheaply made home cooked meals, the modest mass of money had barely chipped away. She hadn't really thought too much about money yet, not having the time to worry about it and being constantly distracted, but it was a shame that she wouldn't be able to access the amount she still had saved up.

With a sigh of resignation, she finished taping up Xander's foot, the gauze wrapped tightly around his toes and the arch of his foot and held in place with tape, turning to him with a snort at the man's hotel preference. "Oh, please," she said in an amused tone. "What a spoiled brat. He's on the run from people who want to kill him and he stops to demand luxury?" She paused and thought for a moment, gently setting his foot back down on the floor of the cab. "Well...there is the Starbucks fixation." She should have expected it.

After about an hour and thirty minutes of driving, Gwen was starting to get tired of sitting in the only position offered her in the small seat in the back of the taxi. Looking at the meter she saw that they'd traveled over 60 miles and she thought that should be good enough distance for now, especially since they were entering a city. Opening the small window between the seats she said to the driver, "I think I'd like to stop soon." His thoughts had flittered through her mind during the drive and she knew that the place they were at now was a city called Vestal. From the look of things outside the windows, it was a pretty big city with lots of large businesses and shops and a sprawling residential area. "Could you find us a nice hotel to stay in?"

"Sure thing, Ma'am," Sal said with a nod. Internally, he had a sketchy map of the city in his head since he'd been here before a few times and knew the basic layout of where everything was. Gwen was pleased by the way the details of his mental map grew clearer as they drove down the streets, even before they reached the next ones in the direction he was taking them. She leaned over Xander's sleeping form to peer out the window as the taxi came to a stop in front of a tall and grandly built hotel. A gold and royal blue engraved stone slab sat out front in a flower bed, proclaiming in flowing letters that this was the Vestal Suites.

"Sal, I'm gonna need your help," she said, looking at the shining glass doors of the hotel. When she felt him grow expectant and confused - and a bit trepidatious; What did the psycho lady want now? - she continued on in a reassuring tone. "I need you to help me carry him inside. I'll pay you extra!" The last was added when she felt him start to decline and the effect was instant.

"Well...what's wrong with him?" he asked, turning his large girth in his seat to look over at the sleeping man. "Does he need like... a hospital or something? I saw you patchin' up his leg..."

"No, he's fine," she said nodding her head. "He got drunk and sprained his foot by acting retarded. He just needs to sleep it off." Still, Sal hesitated, turning over her excuse in his head. It didn't feel right; when he picked them up the guy hadn't seemed drunk... "Please, Sal," she begged. "I can't do it without you."

There were a few moments more that he continued to flip-flop on the decision, but finally he agreed. "Yeah, alright," and he started to open his door before her voice stopped him.

"No, not yet," she said, putting the money Xander had given her into her purse and adjusting the strap on her shoulder. "I need to get a room first." Taking a hair tie out of her bag, she tied her hair back into a neat bun and started to adjust and straighten her clothes. She was about to turn to Alex and ask for his opinion - she didn't want to look like she'd just been in a catfight or running for her life when she went into this wealthy place - but she remembered that Xander's eyes were closed. So, instead, she turned to Sal.

"How do I look?" she asked and waited for him to turn around again to look her over. His eyes instantly went to her cleavage and stayed there for the longest time, but eventually his gaze wandered over the rest of her and what he could see through the plastic barrier.

"Hot," he said with a small approving nod. Rolling her eyes, she began to button up her shirt. "No, don't. Leave it. You look fine." She could tell from the waves coming off of him that his response was genuine and that despite her distracting bust, he thought she looked like a lady. She looks like she belongs in a place like this, he thought. A smile and a blush appeared on her face and for a moment she wanted to kiss him on the cheek, even though he was once again busy admiring her bosom.

Turning to Xander's sleeping form lounging in the right hand corner of the cab, she said softly into his ear, hoping to not be heard by the driver but by Alex alone, "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

Leaving the cab through the door on her side, she walked up onto the sidewalk before stopping to look back. Through the cab window she could see Xander leaning against the door, totally lost to the world and defenseless. It did not sit well with her leaving him like this, but she really didn't have a choice. I'll only be gone a few minutes, she thought to herself before turning and entering the large swinging doors.

Getting a room was pretty easy once she was inside, although she did struggle a bit to separate the things people thought and what was actually said with how many people occupied the lobby, but she managed it. The only problem she faced was getting two rooms or at least a room with two beds. Before she'd put the money away in her purse, she'd counted it out and subtracted how much she'd have to pay Salvatore and set it aside. The rest was enough to pay for one room with a king sized bed, but there wasn't enough left over after that to pay for the extra bed. So, she took what she could get and briskly walked out with the pair of room keycards.

Her breath came out in a relieved rush when she exited the doors and still saw Xander in the backseat, unmoved and unchanged. Sal stood outside the car, leaning with an arm over the roof on the driver's side and was smoking a cigarette. As he thought to wonder What room? as he saw her approach, she said, "We're over on that side," and pointed in the direction he'd have to drive them before getting back in on her side of the car. She did not duck her head inside without casting a wary glance around at the darkening lot first. The front entry way and paved roadway around the sides of the hotel were surrounded by luxurious lamps that illuminated most of the spaces where anyone would be hiding, and helped her see clearly that no one was approaching them. Reaching out mentally, she felt the vibrations of people passing by on the street beside the hotel, but the emptiness that signaled Agents nearby, was not there.

Tossing the smoke away to land with a few small sparks on the pavement, Sal got back into the car and drove around the building to the right wing entrance. Driving in this direction took them to the parking garage underneath the building and after they parked, they both got out, Gwen carrying her purse and Alex's bag and Sal carrying Xander tossed over his shoulder. She checked the area as they headed to the elevators, but the place was empty right now, eerily quiet, the cars of other guests watching them pass with silent menace. And then she checked on Sal to make sure he was doing alright with his burden. Despite his initial reluctance, his wide frame did not have too much trouble toting the passed out man like a sack of potatoes, but he was feeling even more cautious than she was. He really didn't know what was going on and he still wasn't sure if he believed her story about Xander being drunk, and he really didn't want to get in trouble. She felt a small burst of sympathy for him, realizing that her behavior did seem rather odd this whole time, but she eased the guilt knowing that his involvement would be over soon.

The elevators took them up to the fourth floor and she led him down a lushly decorated hallway to the room she'd ordered. The little light on the lock blinked green and beeped in approval as she pushed in the keycard and the double doors opened up into a small entryway. Her eyes widened almost as big as Sal's did as she went through the rooms looking for the bedroom, turning on the lights as she went, Sal trailing behind with an unconscious Xander. "Whoa..." was his only comment as his eyes traveled over the furnishings of first the living room and then the bedroom feeling slightly out of place in this overly comfortable hotel room.

Gwen indicated the bed and set her things down in a chair in the corner. "Just lay him on the bed," she said, rubbing her forehead lightly, feeling exhaustion start to set into her bones and limbs. Sal obediently set Xander down with his head on the pillow on the right side of the bed and stood back with a sigh, his eyes once again wandering over the room. Stepping forward, Gwen reached for his hand, startling him a little bit before he felt the familiar touch of money placed within his palm. It was the full amount and a little extra, just like she'd promised.

"Thanks," he said with a nod. "I almost wish I had enough to stay in this place with you guys." He laughed a little and she smiled.

"Yeah, it is pretty ritzy," she cast a glance around at the space herself, noticing down a little hallway there were two doors opening into darkness but from the looks of it, both bathrooms. "Thank you for your help. I would have never gotten him up here by myself and I would have hated to try and explain his condition to the hotel employees."

"Hey, no problem," he said with a relaxed shrug. "You coulda just told 'em he's drunk and that he banged his toe up from being retarded. I'm sure they woulda bought it." She laughed and for a moment he relaxed, thinking that maybe she wasn't crazy afterall. And he took a moment to admire her cleavage one last time. "Well, I'll see myself out. You take care and good luck with...whatever." She nodded gratefully and watched him go, waiting to hear the door close and going to see that it was before she turned back to the sleeping man.

"We're here, finally," she said, with a sigh, speaking loud enough for Alex to hear her.