Elizabeth was clinging to Shawn's arm as they approached the man in the dark suit. He didn't seem to be the least bit surprised as they closed the gap between him and them. In fact, he seemed to be moving closer towards them as well.

Elizabeth shivered as he got closer. She couldn't read anything from him. No emotions. No thoughts. That never happened. She usually got something even when the person was trying to hide their thoughts or emotions from her.

"What's wrong?" Shawn asked in a sharp whisper.

Elizabeth looked up at him, panic in her eyes. "I'm not getting anything from him, Shawn," she replied, her voice equally as panicked. "Nothing at all. That never happens. Something's not right here. Maybe we should ..."

"No," Shawn replied, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze with his free hand. "We're going to do this. He's not going to freak you out like that and get away with it."

Elizabeth nodded a bit. She could feel his courage and determination starting to flow through her. That was the one thing she liked about her ability. She could draw on someone else's courage to make herself more bold. She licked her lips as the man took a few more steps towards them. She tried again to get into his mind only to find more of the same. It was as if his mind was void of all thoughts. She didn't think that was possible.

"Who are you?" Shawn asked before Elizabeth could consider things more. "Why have you been following Elizabeth?"

"I've been watching your girlfriend for a friend of hers," he replied. "Someone she spoke to recently in fact."

The faces of Diana Skouris and Tom Baldwin suddenly flashed in Elizabeth's mind. She looked up at the man, slightly confused, but gave him a little nod to let him know that she'd gotten his message. She wasn't sure if she understood what was going on exactly, but she wasn't in the mood to argue either. "But why?" she asked.

Shawn gave her a strange look. "Who is he talking about?" he asked her, gently turning Elizabeth's face so she was looking at him.

"I'll explain it to you later, Shawn," Elizabeth replied with a small smile. "I promise. I'll tell you everything. I just have to know this first."

The man gave a crooked grin of his own. "You know why," he replied. "You asked to keep the lines of communication open. I'm here to see if we can work that out."

"By watching me? I don't understand the connection."

The man's grin straightened out a bit as he smiled a bit wider. "You will."

Elizabeth watched him walk away, quite confused by it all. Shawn started after him but she tugged on his arm and shook her head. She tried one last time to get inside the man's head. This time, however, she got something. She could feel his annoyance with her. His thoughts said much the same thing. Elizabeth pouted at that and turned to Shawn. "Let's get back to that party, huh?" she said lightly.

"First tell me what the hell that was about."

"It was about meeting with your uncle again for an off-the-record kind of talk every so often," she explained. "I don't know what him being here had to do with that, but that's what this guy was talking about."

"My uncle?"

"Don't sound so surprised," Elizabeth chastised Shawn, shaking her head a little bit. "He can be a good listener. I need to know there's someone outside of the Center that I can talk to. Can't you understand that?"

Shawn nodded. He didn't understand but he wanted Elizabeth to know that he was trying. He smiled when she gave him a little sigh and placed her hands on her hips. "All right," he admitted. "So I can't understand it but I'm willing to try. I just don't know why you have to go outside of the Center to talk to someone when I'm right here. I'm a good listener, too, you know."

Elizabeth softly laughed, wrapping her arms around Shawn's neck. "You are that, Shawn," she replied, "and much more. That's not the point. You just have to trust that this is what's right for me."

Shawn moved in to kiss her when Jordan came up from behind them. He cleared his throat to signal his arrival. Shawn could have kicked himself – and probably Jordan – for the horrible timing. He turned, however, to look Jordan in the eye as Elizabeth let her hands snake down Shawn's chest. He could feel one of her hands resting on the small of his back as she moved to stand next to Shawn.

"Enjoying yourselves?" Jordan asked.

Elizabeth tried not to roll her eyes at his blatant display of dishonesty. That wasn't what he wanted to know. He wanted to know how well she and Shawn were getting along. He hadn't wanted to interrupt them but people were starting to stare. She looked around the room and saw that Jordan was right. There were more than a couple of people who were still watching her and Shawn. She shook her head and had to fight to keep from knocking them on their asses with a thought or two of her own.

"Yes," Elizabeth sweetly replied. "Of course. Shawn was about to take me out to the garden for a bit of fresh air."

Shawn looked at her and smiled. He could hear her voice in his head, telling him it was the best chance they had to get a moment alone. "That's not a problem, is it?" he asked Jordan. "Or are there more people you want me or Elizabeth to meet?"

Jordan's face went from slightly disappointed to cheerful in a matter of seconds. He shook his head as he placed a hand on Shawn's shoulder and one on Elizabeth's shoulder. "Don't let me stop you two from getting a moment away from the crowd," he said softly to them as he stepped closer to them. "I know how it is for two young people in love."

Elizabeth pursed her lips, biting back the first comment that came to mind. "I'm sure you do," she said instead, although she didn't conceal her distrust of Jordan's motives, "but that's a bit presumptuous of you. Don't you think?"

Jordan's brow furrowed in contemplation. "What do you mean?"

Elizabeth gave him a soft, innocent smile. "Well, you said you know how it is for two young people in love. I think it's a bit presumptuous of you to say something like that. Shawn and I hardly know each other."

Jordan returned her smile and nodded. "You don't need to be an empath to see what I see going on between the two of you," he replied. "Whether or not the two of you will admit it is another story, I suppose."

Elizabeth frowned a bit at that. "I suppose," she replied. She turned to Shawn, grabbing hold of his forearm and tugging a bit. "Come on, Shawn."

Shawn nodded, watching Jordan for a moment. He suddenly wished he had Elizabeth's ability because the way Jordan was watching them made Shawn wonder what the guy was really thinking. He led Elizabeth through the crowd however. They made a couple of stops to talk briefly to some of Seattle's most prominent people but Elizabeth always made it clear that she wanted to keep moving. Shawn wondered if she hadn't used some kind of mental control to get them to step aside but he didn't ask either.

Elizabeth's shoulders slumped considerably as they stepped outside. She took a deep breath of the fragrant air, trying to get rid of all the negative thoughts floating around in her head. All the people back inside had made more of an impression on Elizabeth than she had wanted them to. She smiled at Shawn when she saw the look of concern on his face.

"You're cute when you worry about me," she said as she softly touched his face. "Actually, you're cute all of the time but it's sweet to see you so concerned for my well-being. Don't worry so much, though, okay? I'm fine."

Shawn led her to a bench as far from the building as they could get without wandering too far. He knew Jordan's security team would be watching them, making sure they didn't try to sneak away or something. He helped her sit down before joining her on the bench. He took her hands in his and squeezed him a bit, getting her to look up at him.

"You can't be too 'okay'," Shawn replied. "You look terrible."

Elizabeth chuckled slightly. "Thanks so much. After I get through telling you I think you look cute," she teased, "you tell me that I look terrible."

Shawn chuckled and shook his head. "That's not what I meant," he said. "You look amazing tonight but there's something going on in that head of yours. You don't look terrible but ... Well, you know what I'm trying to say."

Elizabeth nodded. She chewed on her lower lip as she tried to figure out how to tell Shawn what was going on. The concern on his face made her smile, made her feel better. "There's only so much negativity one girl can take," she replied, "you know? All those people in that room don't exactly think we're the greatest thing since sliced bread. To top it off, there's more than a few of them who flat out hate Jordan Collier and they hate you because you're so closely associated with him. It was getting to be a bit much."

Shawn nodded a little. "I'd say that we should just get the hell out of here," he said with a shrug, "but I doubt the security guards watching us from the building would be too happy with us if we did."

Elizabeth nodded and pursed her lips. She knew they were there before Shawn had even mentioned them. The seriousness of their thoughts and actions had been at the edge of her thoughts from the moment she and Shawn had gotten outside. She leaned closer to Shawn and settled her head on his shoulder. Shawn let go of her hands to wrap an arm around her shoulders. As he pulled her closer, Elizabeth felt a rush of tenderness wash over her thoughts. She snuggled up to Shawn and sighed.

"Thank you."

Shawn looked down at her with confusion on his features. "For what?"

"For being here with me," she explained. "For caring about me. For everything. You have no idea how much it means to me to know that you're here."

"I think I know about little bit about that," he replied with a crooked grin. He gently moved some of her hair from her eyes as he stared down at her. Shawn was surprised at how good it felt to be with Elizabeth. He hadn't thought he'd feel that way in a long time.

Elizabeth could feel Shawn staring at her as she looked back at the 4400 Center building. It wasn't just Shawn that she was feeling at that moment. She knew Jordan Collier was standing in a window somewhere in that building, watching them as best as he could from a distance. A chill ran through her as she thought about it. It freaked her out that she could tell it was Jordan watching them and not just another security guard.

Leave us alone, Elizabeth thought, anger and frustration coursing through her. She hoped Jordan caught that as well as her thought.

Jordan took several steps backward. Some of the people around him watched him with great concern. Two of his most trusted bodyguards rushed to his side to make sure everything was fine. Jordan just smiled at them and waved them off. His dark eyes were still fixed on the garden outside. Elizabeth was out there and the fact that she knew he was watching intrigued him. Her power was still growing by leaps and bounds. Jordan nodded as he turned away from the window.

He would give her the space she so desperately wanted. He would even give Shawn a bit more freedom, if only to placate Elizabeth. Jordan wanted Elizabeth to be happy in her new home so that she could learn to trust him. Once he had her trust, he knew he would have a powerful ally. The fact that his protege and his newest acquisition had found something in each other only made Jordan that much more certain that it was his job to bring the 4400 together in preparation for the war that he knew was coming.

A/N: That's it, folks. Hope you enjoyed it. I don't know if my muse will allow me another story with Elizabeth but maybe. :) So this very well could be the last you see of her. I always suffer from sophomore slump anyway and my second stories almost never get finished. :P But I'll try if I get so inspired, promise! Especially if any of you really did have fun reading this because I had a lot of fun writing it. Thanks for reading!