Series: Part of the I Scream the Body Series.
Pairing: J/B
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be unfortnately.
Archive: Sure, gimme a yell where though.
Notes: It's NC 17. Big huge thanks to Will for the brilliant beta.
Spoilers: Season 2 eps, from the one with Brennan and the vanishing town to Hillview.
******
I Scream the Body IV
~~~
Jesse's workshop is a study in chaos. A contradiction when compared to his pristine bedroom. There are even photos here - a series of Polaroid's of Shal and Jesse goofing off for the camera. Long before Emma or himself. There's a pot plant too, courtesy of the timid Emma even though Jesse doesn't have *anything* green about him, and Brennan's given up trying. Instead he just waters the plantt every now and then.
Scattered through are various odds and ends - parts Brennan isn't sure he's ever seen before. It speaks to him sometimes, when he comes in and Jesse is hunched over something, of a loneliness, of refuge in this world where Jesse knows how to put everything together and take it apart again. Even now he's hunched over his computer, riveted to the screen.
Brennan doesn't even try to resist.
He sneaks up, slides his hand across Jesse's waist....and nothing.
"You knew I was there," Brennan accuses. Jesse's body rumbles with laughter.
"Pretty much," Jesse admits. But that doesn't deter Brennan. A biting kiss on the nape of Jesse neck causes him to shudder. And that's all. Brennan growls his disappointment at Jesse's focus on the screen. The picture there is of a woman, long red hair curling over her shoulders.
"Pretty," Brennan murmurs, not referring to the woman though.
"Yeah," Jesse replies, his fingers flying over the keyboard before Brennan grabs his left hand, holds him just that much more closer.
"What are you doing?" Jesse asks curiously. Onscreen the picture is superimposed onto a driver's license and their hands are still locked together. Brennan breathes on the back of Jesse's neck.
Smiles when Jesse's hand curls, and his follows, like a natural extension of Jesse's body.
"Can I help you with something?" Jesse asks conversationally.
"No," Brennan replies. He opens their hands, his own drifting closer to Jesse's hip. Smiles into Jesse hair when Brennan feels him tense at the touch before his hand settles against Jesse's cock, now beautifully thick.
"You know the sooner..." Jesse's voice hitches when Brennan licks the spot behind is ear.
"...I get this over with...the sooner I can fuck you..."
Raspy words and it's Brennan's turn now to groan thickly at the promise in them.
"I want to do you over your desk, just like this," Brennan answers, rocks his hips against Jesse ass.
"But I'll hold you to your promise first..." he relents. None too soon as Adam's disembodied voice floats through the room.
"Jesse...how are you doing with those ids?"
"Good..." Jesse squeaks. Glances at Brennan in warning. It's times like these Brennan hopes for payback.
~~~
"Do you know, I had to finish the last two ID's with a hard-on..."
Brennan gasps as the hard on in question settles against his ass. He lifts his hips obligingly as his sweats are dragged off roughly.
"Should I be sorry?" he hisses into the pillow. His boxers are next and the sheets cool against his cock.
"Are you?" comes the amused question, feathered against the side of his neck.
"No..."
Brennan gasps, presses his face into the pillow again, writhes as Jesse's tongue invades him. Hands tighten around his waist, hold him still and there is no escape. Brennan cannot run, cannot move. Caught.
And then not.
"Not yet..." Jesse says, ruthless bastard that he , he turns Brennan over easily.
"Get rid of this," he demands as he tugs Brennan's T-shirt, pulls it off in one movement. A growl of frustration reaches him when the shirt gets caught around his neck, their hands entangled in their haste to remove the shirt.
God, it's good like this Brennan thinks.
"Let me," he says, his voiced muffled in the folds of the material. Just like that Jesse's hands are gone, the shirts next and Brennan is rewarded by bare skin too.
"Finally," he breathes, his hands touching skin. He craves like someone who has gone without for too long. Jesse smiles meets his lips and Brennan revels in their taste.
His turn to explore now, smooth skin to Jesse's jeans, rough material against his body.
"Jesse," he whines, flicks the jeans open with a snap of his wrist. Tugs them down, frustrated now, but then he doesn't care because Jesse kisses him. Hard, but Brennan finds skin, the curve of Jesse's ass, his cock thick against his own.
"Like this, just like this," Jesse murmurs, his eyes so *alive* Brennan cannot breathe.
This is what he does to Jesse.
Brennan draws him in, his jeans rough against his thighs until Jesse begins to move, thrusts against him. Breath shared, clumsy wet kisses while their bodies move in concert until Brennan comes and Jesse isn't too far behind.
Jesse breathes at last, a shuddering gasp that rends the air in the room, strips away everything and leaves Brennan bare.
This is what he does to Jesse. This is what Jesse does to him.
He helps Jesse strip off his jeans, draws him close as they fall asleep.
Brennan can't remember if it was supposed to be this way.
~~~
It's a small thing really. Waiting in the darkness of the warehouse, Jesse is sure he's probably over reacting. Next to him Joshua stands still, unnaturally so, Shal on his other side.
Before them the Helix descends slowly in stealth mode. He knows it's there, yet he cannot see it.
Willful blindness. He's discovered he's good at that. Emma and Brennan are inside. Mary too, Joshua's mother. The boy is all of twelve, he's been on the run for the past six months of his life with his mother before they got into contact with Mutant X. Joshua is a psionic, his powers just developing. His mother, an earth elemental. An agriculturist to be exact. And according to Adam, the new growth formula she's developed could revolutionize the industry. It also means a lot of people want her dead.
Brennan brought her in. Her and Joshua, his hand wrapped around her shoulders and Joshua looking up at him, believing in him.
Brennan's going to transport them out again, as far away from the city as they can get. Jesse's already done the new ID's.
It would have been over long ago had Joshua not been kidnapped. Emma got a hit, while he and Shal tracked the boy down. Mary asked Brennan to stay with her.
He didn't say no.
The Helix lands, a thud echoing in the night. The back opens, a gaping maw in the air and Joshua is off before either he or Shal can say a word. He's already in his mother's arms when they reach the Helix, Mary clutching at her son, before she looks at Brennan and whispers her thanks.
Jesse realizes then Brennan didn't tell her anything. Nor does he say anything when Mary presses her head to his chest and he holds her close.
It's been in front of him all along.
Later that night, Jesse slips into bed alone. He knows they will never see Mary or Joshua again, knows that Brennan will return to him. Slip into bed next to him. Yet, when he does, when he feels Brennan next to him, Jesse's still cold.
~~~
He wakes Brennan with a kiss the next morning. Hard and ruthless until they're both wide awake. His hands are rough as he strips Brennan; rougher still as Jesse slicks his own fingers with lube and reaches back to prepare himself. Kisses away the confusion on Brennan's face because if this is fast and hard they don't have to think too much. It'll just happen, and it does. He sinks onto Brennan's cock, his body screaming at the abruptness of it all. Jesse doesn't care, it drowns out his own screams. It's drowns out the night before.
After when Brennan is showering, Jesse strips the bed of it's sheets. It's safe here, in this insular world of Mutant X. Nothing can touch them, until now they haven't let it.
Jesse shakes his head. He's just been blind.
~~~
Brennan, for want of a better word, prowls around the table. The place hums with the ebb and flow of energy as people drift in and out. He does another circuit of the table, his brow furrowed in deep concentration. Jesse suspects he's been taking lessons from Shal, though what Brennan doesn't know is that he taught Shal how to play pool - better. The prowling he thinks would have been more effective had he actually been winning.
Though, Jesse will admit he's never wanted to spread Shal over a pool table...and comes back to Brennan, curious now as he lines up his shot.
"What?" he asks. Pulls the cue back and Jesse waits, times it perfectly.
"I was just thinking about spreading you over this pool table and sucking you off..."
The white ball rolls forward grazes the yellow harmlessly.
Brennan growls.
"What?" Jesse bats his eyes and Brennan tries to hide his grin.
"Oh funny, you're such a comedian," he retorts. Jesse just nods in the direction of the bar.
"Beer, please. Be glad I'm a cheap date."
Grins sunnily when Brennan growls again. Just like always, he can be this Jesse. He can be okay.
~~~
Brennan doesn't come back alone. Chris, as tall and yet broader than Brennan, is gregarious and funny. Knows Brennan from way back when, he proclaims loudly when Brennan introduces them.
"Was he always this bad a pool player?" Jesse asks. Doesn't pry, not considering what Brennan was into 'way back when'.
"Pretty much," Chris replies, grins.
"Thank you, thank you very much," Brennan throws his hands up in surrender.
"Here," Jesse offers Chris his cue. "Feel free to beat him again. He's getting used to it."
"Please," Brennan snorts, and they're off. Jesse settles back and watches. It's been a long time since he's seen Brennan like this.
~~~
He loses spectacularly, but Jesse keeps thinking how good it is to hear Brennan laugh again. Another round on Brennan, but this time Chris takes pity on him and goes instead. He doesn't come back alone either.
Anna, who Brennan knows too, who hugs him warmly like the old friends they are. She fills the space then with memory and a *past* that is thick in the familiarity between them. There is a story of an old heist that makes Brennan hide his blush in his drink and it's obvious that Anna leaves the reason for the blushing part out. There's the story of the first time they met, which makes her throw back her head and laugh wildly and loudly and she's just so *there* that Jesse feels himself fade even more.
"How about a game?" Anna laughs, and Jesse does too because her laugh is infectious and bawdy and Brennan just hides his head in mock shame. Two against two, Chris and Jesse against Brennan and Anna.
They play, Jesse isn't sure if Brennan is aware of how much Anna isolates him. Flirts with him and leaves Jesse feeling like he's a teenager again. Irrational and overreacting he reminds himself when Anna touches Brennan on his shoulder, shifts his arm just so to line up the shot. Brennan notices it, he realizes when he catches the furtive glances thrown his way. They both *see*.
Jesse takes great satisfaction in beating them both.
~~~
"I guess the better team won," Anna bows graciously. Jesse wants to hate her, he really does. But he doesn't.
"Thank you, thank you very much," Chris bows. Anna laughs, the whole of her body quivering at Chris' curtsy. It's attractive, Jesse admits.
"That's it for me tonight," Anna announces, turns to him.
"Jesse, it was a pleasure to meet you," she says, kisses him softly on the cheek.
"You too," he mumbles, even as she's with Chris now. A kiss again before Brennan and the piece of paper she presses into his hand.
With a cheery wave, she's off, threading her way through the bar, and so is Jesse. He barely manages a goodbye to Chris before he heads for the exit. He doesn't really care if Brennan is following or not.
~~~
Outside is cool and quiet, the noise from the bar hollow. He can hear the tap of footsteps behind him. Jesse knows it's Brennan.
"Wait up," Brennan says, so Jesse does because he is asked, because he has the keys. He tries to remember the last time he played this game with someone he loved. How tired it makes him feel. Brennan's an open book, but the ride back to Sanctuary is silent. The thump of music is loud in the car, fuels his anger. Jesse sinks into it, lets it consume him, because how could he have been so stupid?
~~~
In Sanctuary he waves at Adam in the lab as he passes by, drops a goodnight kiss on Shal's head on his way to bed. Emma's already asleep, resting against Shal's shoulder.
He doesn't wait for Brennan.
Jesse changes quickly, every moment he knows Brennan will be walking through the door. He wants to be in bed by the time that happens. He doesn't want to talk. Doesn't want anything but this night just to end.
Jesse gets under the sheets, just barely before Brennan comes in. The room light is switched off and Brennan undresses by the low light of his bedside lamp.
Jesse closes his eyes and pretends he can sleep.
That the space between them isn't aching.
~tbc~