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Disclaimer: I do not own The 4400, I am simply borrowing the characters for a while to pursue other storylines that this wonderful doesn't.  The characters are the property of Steven Ira Behr and the USA Network.  So please don't sue. All story ideas are my own. 




Author's Chapter Notes:
This story takes places directly after Graduation Day.


Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


Isabelle sat beside Shawn’s prone figure watching him sleep.  She hadn’t seen him since she’d been released from NTAC hours ago.  An unplanned talk with Tom Baldwin had got her seeking out Shawn before she’d even known where she was going.  Some of what Tom had said left her doubting her relationship with Shawn.  He’d said before that he didn’t hate her.  But, she had to know how he felt for sure.

       

Shawn turned onto his back, drowsily opening his eyes.  “Isabelle?” He croaked as he shifted to sit up wearily in his bed, the sheet sliding off his body.  Clearing his throat, he reached over and turned on the light. “What are you doing here?”

       

“I-I wanted to talk.”

 

 He shoved a hand through his hair, glancing at his bedside clock noting the late hour before looking at her.  “Can’t this wait until tomorrow?  I’m tired.”  He sighed.

       

“No, Shawn. I have to talk to you now. This can’t wait.”  Isabelle rose off the bed and began pacing.  “You said before at Daniel Armand’s house that you didn’t hate me.”  She glanced at him. “Was that true?”

       

“Of course.  I wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t true, Isabelle.  I don’t hate you.” He sighed scratching his head.  “But, I don’t really understand you either.  Why would you kill so many people?”

       

“For you, I did it for you.” Isabelle paused in her pacing to stare imploringly at him.  “To protect you.  I didn’t want to see you get hurt anymore.”  She sat on the bed beside his straightened legs as he maneuvered himself against the headboard.  “Don’t you understand Shawn-they were going to kill you.”  She whispered softly as though he were a child.  “I couldn’t let that happen.”  She reached for his hand, “I couldn’t let them kill you.”

       

“And what about Matthew? What was he trying to kill me too?  Was he a threat?” 

       

Isabelle froze dropping his hand.  “Who told you that?”   

       

“Does it matter?” He reached across Isabelle to grab his pants from the chair.   But as she was closer and she grabbed them before he did.  “Thank you.” She handed him the black pants and shifted down the bed so he could stand and put them on. “Matthew died in this apartment on the same day you took me out of the hospital.  So obviously something happened.”  There he stood over her with nothing but boxers and a pair of unbuttoned black pants on.

       

“It’s not what you think Shawn.  Matthew had a heart attack.” 

       

He crossed his arms over his chest.  “Matthew was 36 years old; in perfect health and all of the sudden he has a heart attack.”  He asked incredulously.  “That’s a little hard for me to believe Isabelle.”

       

Isabelle glanced down at the bed that the two of them had shared many times before.  “What do you want me to say Shawn?”  Do you want me to say that I killed Matthew?  That I caused his heart attack?”  She stood up beside him, her eyes rising to meet his.

       

“Did you?”

       

She hesitated before answering him raising her chin defiantly.  “I did.  But, it’s not what you think.  I had to do it— for you, for us.”  She propped her hands on his bare chest, “now we can be together.”  She smiled at him with a childlike faith that everything would end happily with no recourse for them, as if everything she had done in the past few days wouldn’t change anything between them.

       

Shawn suddenly felt the full wealth of the gap in their true ages.  Feeling old and wizened with a world of experience, he grabbed her hands.  “No, Isabelle we can’t be together.  I need time, some space.”

       

Her smile faltered. This is what Matthew had warned her about – what she’d been expecting.  “You’re breaking up with me.”  She pulled her hands from his grasp, backing away from him.

       

Shawn didn’t move merely nodding in response.  “I think it’s for the best.  I took advantage of you, Isabelle and I shouldn’t have.  I’m the adult—,”

       

“I’m an adult too, Shawn.”

 

“I know, but I’m older.  I should have known better.  Things have changed between us.  We aren’t the same people we were when this started.”  He paused.  “You’ve changed Isabelle. You’ve killed innocent people, 4400s and I don’t know how to deal with that.”

       

“They weren’t innocent.  They were hurting you and you didn’t deserve that.”

       

“It doesn’t matter.”  He licked his lips. “The future gave us our abilities to do good – to help people.  And you’ve used your abilities to harm others because you could.”

 

“What good are my abilities if I can’t use them help to save someone I love?”  She asked struggling to make sense of this. 

 

“That’s just it Isabelle.  Your abilities make you powerful, more powerful than any other 4400.  And with that power comes responsibility.  You can’t just harm someone because they won’t give you what you want.”

 

Isabelle tilted her head to the side studying Shawn as though he was a specimen in a lab.  “You’re scared of me aren’t you? You’re scared of my abilities and what I can do with them.”  He didn’t answer but she knew the truth.  “I wouldn’t hurt you Shawn.  You have to know that.”

       

“I do,” he lied.  Shawn wasn’t certain of anything with Isabelle at this point.  Even though, she said she wouldn’t hurt him he wasn’t even certain she truly grasped the idea of life and death with all her power.  She had attempted to kill Richard before, her own father.  He’d heard others whispering about it, about how Isabelle had attempted to give her father a heart attack in the hallway.  They said that something had made her stop before she had could kill him.  But, then she had killed people, not necessarily innocents but, people just the same who woke up one day on the wrong side of Isabelle’s temperament and she turned their powers against them.  It was enough for him to be wary of her.

       

“Isabelle, I have a meeting in the morning that I have to get up early for.  I need to rest.”

       

She nodded tightly.  “Of course, Shawn, I understand.”  She turned to leave his room, pausing at the doorway to look back at him.  “I just want you know that I … I want—I hope you get better soon.”

       

Shawn nodded and watched Isabelle leave his apartment closing the door behind her.  As soon as the door shut, he sank onto his bed his shoulders hunching as he let out the breath he’d been holding.  That had been easier than he’d expected.  At least, now, it was finally over.

*

Isabelle walked into her room contemplating something Matthew had said to her.  He’d warned her that ultimately she and Shawn would be on two different sides and she had hoped he was wrong.  That Shawn loved her as much as she did him.

All the books said that break-ups were inevitable.  But, they never mentioned the pain, how much it would hurt.  She had never anticipated it hurting as much as it did.  She was unprepared for how much she would invest in the relationship, how much she would care for Shawn.  How much it would hurt to know that he didn’t want her. 

 

She recalled her conversation with Tom Baldwin; he believed that she was destined to be evil.  Matthew had said as much as well —the Future needed her to destroy the 4400 – they’d made her so she could destroy them.  Everyone seemed to assume that she would either save them or kill them; that she would be the deciding factor in a war between 4400s and those without abilities.  

 

The only one, who never expected anything of her, was Shawn.  When she was first aged, Shawn was the one who made her feel like she could be normal.  Even, now he made her feel better now because she knew that he was almost as powerful as she was and he still managed to be normal.  She needed that, she needed him. 

 

Without Shawn she was afraid of what she would do.  He kept her grounded and with him by her side she was sure, she would never have to worry about being good or evil, she could just be Isabelle.  With him there was no one else’s agenda to worry about but her own.  There was only one way to solve this problem, she simply couldn’t let the relationship end. 

 

She would just have to make sure that no one got in her way again.  She wouldn’t listen to Matthew or her father anymore, she would make decisions for herself and she would keep Shawn by her side.  But, first she needed to insure that if a war started against the 4400s she wasn’t apart of it.  She needed to align herself with someone who would listen to her, someone who wouldn’t have an agenda separate from her own. 

 

Then, she would get Shawn back by her side.  She wanted—no needed Shawn in her life by any means necessary.  She had to do whatever it took to get him back.  Even though, Shawn he said he wasn’t afraid of her powers, she didn’t believe him.  She’d seen Shawn’s face when she turned Daniel Armand’s power on himself; he was scared of what she could do.  It stood to reason, then that if she threatened to use her power against him he would come back to her.  Either way, she’d have to put the first part of her plan in action before she went after Shawn.  She needed to make an appointment to see Dennis Ryland.





Chapter End Notes:

Lesson 2 - Honesty

Coming soon







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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.