Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my story! This will probably be two to three chapters long. It mostly follows Doctor Marta Shearing though when she first met Aaron Cross (or number 5 as she had known as him at the time) and through Bourne Legacy and possibly after if I can get that far, but I hope to go all the way through Bourne Legacy. So yeah! Please take it easy on me and consider this is the first story I've ever published and probably has some gramatical mistakes. I've never gotten the time or courage to publish any of my other millions of stories until this one. Also please know that I've only seen the movie once so far, so this is all written from memory. But please enjoy! Also please review, it really helps out to finish stories faster! Thanks again!

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to anything in the Bourne series, nor are any profits made from this. I just enjoy playing around with the characters:)

Heartbeat

Chapter One

Her heart raced every time; though it had always just been science... Until number 5.

The first time she met him, he was in horrible condition and she wondered what they were doing out there that did this to them.

Doctor Marta Shearing is a scientist and she was supposed to be cool, calm and collected. But she couldn't help but not be as this mysterious man's eye was blood shot and swollen, his bald head with deep gashes and half of his face shredded. Who had done this to him? What man deserved this?

Whatever it was, it was her job to fix it. She made haste while tending to him and her pace only quickened as she hooked him to the heart monitor registering his heartbeat very slow.

But that changed the moment she inserted the needle into the piggyback of his IV. The medicine took effect fairly quick and she wondered for a moment what she had doomed this man to.

His heartbeat came back to normal quickly and hers settle back as well. Her excitement spiked as she saw this participant's recovery before her eyes. It was truly amazing, as well as the science of it all.

She gave him a sedative to put him to sleep for a good twenty-four hours. And after he woke she took four vials of blood sample.

He left soon after and she took his blood sample to the next room to be put away for later testing and carefully labeled each vile with a large number 5.

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The next time project participant number 5 returned she did not recognize him. At first she had thought a mistake had been made but did not voice her concern but went through with the regular testing and check up.

This number 5 man had no cuts or scars from the deep wounds she had seen only a couple months before. His hair, dirty blond, had grown out to about an inch and a half long. He looked healthy and strong, having a deep confidence that was not present two months prior when they met. He was a handsome man, but she knew that was a thought to be banished. This man was nothing more then a project participant and she, the doctor and scientist to study him. She knew she should not have any underlying thoughts as these. It was purely science. But it was difficult as his dark blue eyes carefully watched her every move around the room, having a slight smirk on his lips several times she turned to look at him. None of the others were like this.

Though this should make her uneasy and possibly frightening she wasn't but more or less found it alluring; her heartbeat sped up every time she turned and saw his lopsided smirk.

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The next several times project participant 5 returned were much like the last. He wouldn't say much but would watch her very carefully as if he was assessing her as much as she was him.

After a year or so of regular visits he began to talk more which would only stimulate her interest, especially when he was voluntarily giving her the answers she wished to know but stamped them out as she knew she they were being carefully watched and recorded.

Three years after the first time they met he came in for a checkup as she was to look over several injuries he had acquired the previous month. One of the injuries was a severely deep cut in his hand. If he had been a normal man he would not have even been able to have use of his hand. But he isn't a normal man.

"Right hand, please." Project participant 5 raised his right hand as she checked over where an ugly scar should have been. But there was no trace he had ever wounded his hand. "Well, that has healed well. Any diminished sensation?"

"No." he pauses watching as she gathers various materials.

"What do you think we do out there, doc?" she pushed the tip of the needle into piggyback of his IV.

"That's enough; you know there are cameras watching." She walked over to a hazard container disposing of the needle.

"Is that why you always come in here looking so attractive?" She looked over to him to see a secretive smirk playing on his lips. Her heart thrummed a little faster, fear momentarily grasping her. Not fear of harm or death... but the adrenaline that drove her.

"Count backwards from one hundred." She stood beside his bed gently lowering his head as he became drowsier.

He counted in Russian, and was out soon enough.

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Several months later she was called in late at night. It had been several weeks passed the normal time he came in for his checkup.

As she looked over him he was unusually quiet, though he was quite unpredictable. The others were always silent, which made things faster and easier.

His eyes would flicker up to hers every 30 seconds or so, but he did not appear to have any wounds or injuries of any kind, only extreme exhaustion. It seemed as if something had taken a great toll upon him.

They both were silent through all the tests and checkup. She knew it was better not to say anything, not to get involved. She was not allowed to know what they did outside of this room, she wasn't sure she even would want to know. But it made things easier, no attachment, there for, no guilt. They were just part of the science.

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The day Doctor Donald Foite went out of his mind, her heart pounded faster than ever. Her only thought was to stay alive and she did. She was the only one left alive, though he had made his attempts to kill her but was unsuccessful.

By the time security bust in she was the last of them, but he'd already taken his own life. This left her scared as heck and half wishing she'd gone with the rest of them so she may not have to suffer the trauma.

The next day they came to her house on very short notice, people from the company she worked for. It ticked her off; she'd answered all the police's questions and other higher ups from the company. She wanted to be left alone, and she had a flight to catch in less than a few hours. She didn't have time to waste.

"Come in please." They had just driven up and a man and woman stepped out. "They called only an hour ago to tell me you were coming."

"Yes we just wanted to talk." The woman responded. "This is a beautiful house you have."

"I would rather not talk about the house, unless you're interested in buying it." They entered the kitchen, it had a nice medium sized table with four chairs surrounding. "Sit, please. I guess." Marta wasn't sure what to do, or what they even wanted. The woman sat down and gestured for her to join her. "Who are you? What are you doing in my house? Are you some bull crap psychologist here to assess me?" Marta lean against the counter, her arms folded tight to her chest in a defensive position.

"Doctor Shearing, I am Doctor Connie Dowd, a trauma psychologist specialist and you have been though a very traumatic experience it is normal for you to deal with it like this and want to get away. We know you have bought a plane ticket to go see your sister. Did you really think you could just go off without us knowing, without some kind of bells and whistles going off?" Marta looked around becoming scared again, that she might not be able to get away from this place. "Come on let's just talk a bit." Marta considered her for a second and finally pulled out a chair and sat down.

They talked for a good ten minutes before the man walked back in holding a gun, Marta's gun.

"I found this." His statement directed toward Doctor Dowd.

"What the- that's my gun! Why do you have my gun?" Marta jumped out of her chair and back from the table.

"Doctor Shearing, just calm down."

"Why do you have my gun?" Marta yelled at the man, looking back and forth between the two of them. "You've been snooping around MY house while we've been talking this whole time!" She looked at them accusingly, shocked at their audacity to do such a thing. "Get out! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" She screamed at them.

"DOCTOR SHEARING, CALM DOWN! IF WE DON'T DO THIS, THEY WON'T LET YOU GO!" Doctor Dowd yelled back at Marta. "They won't let you get on that plane unless they know you're calm and in control of yourself, and that you know the conditions. You have to give us a chance so we can pass you, and you can get on that plane." she explained.

Marta quieted down, looking between the two, "Okay." She stated in a collected voice and she bent and sat down on the pulled out chair. The specialist leaned back against the table directly in front of Marta. The man came around the other side and handed the gun over to Dowd. She stood up and grabbed the gun pointing it right at Marta's head, the man walked to the backside of her chair to hold her down. But Marta caught her off guard, struggling all the way and throwing her hand up to aim the barrel of her gun anywhere but her head. Marta and Dowd struggled for a minute, but it was futile. The barrel pointed at her head just about and Dowd already pulling back the trigger, but less than a millisecond away, a man busted though her pantry door; shoving the man away and making Dowd lose her balance and barely miss shooting Marta but hit the man that had just been shoved down. Dowd had dropped the gun in the short brawl and Marta quickly leaned down to pick it up. She wasted no time in taking off up toward the upstairs to hide.

Once upstairs she ran into her room and hid behind her dresser where she was not easily visible, and held her gun in front of her. She prayed by some miracle they wouldn't come up there, and she wouldn't have to use it. And it took her a minute to realize that it was a miracle that man had come from her pantry and sacked that guy.

Down stairs the man that had busted through the pantry door went to hide on the outer deck when two other gunmen came in through the front door.

Marta upstairs heard a lot of shooting going on and made her even more scared (If that was possible). Several more minutes passed and started to be that the silence was even more deafening then the shooting; but then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Small little creaks, but she knew them well. After several deathly terrifying minutes she heard a few distant bangs.

Marta wasn't sure what to do, her head hurt from all of this and she was so scared she knew she could not move. Trying to calm herself she put her head down to rest on her knees which were tucked up close to her chest, but she still held her gun out in front of her.

Down stairs, the man from the pantry had killed one of the gun men in the basement and climbed out a small window to the outside. He looked around and found a spot on the house that would be good for scaling and backed up to get a running start; he jumped up, pushing his feet off on the siding and grabbed the edge of the roof. He pulled himself up and kept down as he walked across to a double window and pulled them open. Silently crawling in, he moved to the side of the doorway in the room. Very cautiously he popped his head out to see a woman in the hall looking thru rooms with a hand gun pointed in front of her. It was the same woman that had tried to kill Marta only minutes ago, the 'doctor specialist.'

Taking a breath he moved swiftly out of the room, gun ready and right as she turned shot her square in the chest. He quickly moved over to her side picking up her gun, and then looked over the railing of the stairs but saw no one yet. He knew there was still one gunman left roaming the house.

He checked the magazine of the gun he took from the woman and found two bullets still left. So two guns, loaded and ready, he moved over to the last room in the upstairs that the woman hadn't checked. He popped his head in and saw her- saw Marta- and she was unsuccessfully trying to hide behind a dresser and protect herself with her hand gun. Quickly moving his head out again, he took another breath and stepped thru the door way for him to be visible to her, his guns pointed up and a way of surrender.

Right when Marta saw him she cocked the gun and shot at him several times, but they were only blanks as she was out of bullets.

"Hey look it's me. It me." He was in front of her now and moved down to her level on his knees. Marta recognized him; it was 'project participant' number 5. "Do you wanna live? Cuz I wanna live." he said grabbing the top of her gun to pull it out of her grip, "Do you wanna live?!" he asked more urgently.

"Yes." Marta finally was able to choke out the word.

"Good, but we gotta help out each other." Number 5 heard rustling from down stairs and picked up one of the guns off the floor. "Here, take this." he placed it in her hands. "Okay. I'm going to need you to do exactly what I tell you." he watched the door carefully as he relayed her instructions. He took off his watch, handing it to her as well. "In exactly 20 after the seconds hand touches the 12 again I need you to shoot your gun upward once. So just hide behind here and I'll be out there when the guy comes up."

"Okay," she weakly responded. He grabbed his guns and they both stood up.

"In 20 seconds." she nodded and he disappeared into the hall.

Watching the watch carefully, exactly 20 seconds passed and she fired. She heard a man's footsteps coming quickly but she just hoped number 5 would get him before she had to. And she was right, the second the man made it to the top four shots were fired through the closet door and the gunman dropped dead.

Project participant 5 stepped out of the closet and walked over to the large window behind the stairs and looked out. Marta came out of the room and into the hall finally, and 5 looked over at her.

"Marta I need that watch now." he took several strides back to her side as she handed him back his watch. He looked at it and made quick calculations inside his head as he put it back on.

"Alright, where is it?" he assumed she knew what he was referring to.

"Where is what?" she was confused and scared.

"Where is the medicine." he grabbed her shoulders, "Well? Where is it?" he shook her a bit, trying to get a response.

"I don't know." she gasped out, still in shock.

"What do you mean you don't know? You must know! Where is it? Do you have any here?"

"In the house?"

"Yes!" he said desperately.

"No, not here." she closed her eyes, her head pounding and heart racing.

"Then where? Where is it?"

"I don't know." she said again.

"How do you not know? Why would they be trying to kill you so soon if you don't even know! What do you know?!" he stepped back from her frustrated.

"Science, I was just there to examine and study, to create formulas, but we never produced medicine there in the building."

He sighed, looking around again and back to his watch. "Fine, we have less than 8 minutes to clear out of here, because the next thing coming through that door is gonna wipe us out." Number 5 told her as he checked the rounds in each magazine of the guns.

He led her to the bottom of the stairs and then ran down stairs to grab several tanks of gasoline. Then he went around quickly dumping it everywhere.

When he was back at the bottom of the stairs he pulled out a lighter and passed it over to Marta, "You should probably be the one to do it." She went to the bottom of stair and lit a small puddle of gas that led upstairs. They ran into the kitchen where she then set the table cloth on fire. He grabbed her arm as they ran out the back and into the dry woods.

After about a half mile they came near the road were inconspicuously his car was hidden. Both got in and they drove off and far away from the burning house.

They had been driving for five minutes; number 5 had been turning back a lot, watching for anyone following.

"Where are we going?" She finally asked and he looked back again before turning to look at her.

"June. Your name is June Monroe. Say it." he flicked his head back again looking out.

"June Monroe," she said meekly.

"Say it!"

"June Monroe," she said louder.

"Pick a place you live, the last place you lived. A place you know." he told her hurriedly. She paused a second to think.

"Bethesda." she said exasperated.

"Bethesda, and that's where you live. If anybody asks you're June Monroe from Bethesda. You lost your wallet, I'm driving you home, my name is James. James and June, got it?"

"Yeah." Marta nodded.

"Okay."

There was a pause and then Marta spoke again, "Is that your name?" Number 5 looked over at her confused.

"James?" he asked and she nodded, "No! What?- you don't know my name?!" Marta shook her head. "What do you call me? What do you put on my blood work?" he asked incredulous.

"Five."

"Five? The number five?" She nodded again. He shook his head in amazement, flashing a quick smile of unbelief. "You know how many times we've met? Thirteen. Thirteen exams over the last four years. And that's what I get, the number five!"

She looked at him, feeling bad she had never thought about his real name though she had known him for a long time. "What is your name?"

His eyes flickered to her, "Aaron. Aaron Cross." He looked over, "How many are there of us?"

"There were 9 but now there are 8."

"What did you call us?

"Project participants."

"Project participants?" he asked confounded, she just nodded. He laughed humorlessly, "Just some fancy way of calling us lab rats."

Marta didn't respond but looked away from him. She had never had any outside contact with any people from the lab, especially project participants. It made it easier too, she didn't think about it as much. They just came in and she did her tests on them and they left.

"So where can I get some medicine?"

"I don't know."

"Then what do you know doctor?!"

"You can't get it here."

"Then where?"

"You can't drive there."

"Where, Marta?!"

"The Philippines."

Aaron sighed and dropped his head down. "What exactly were you doing in that lab? Why were you there?"

"I was there to make formulas, to study effects and work with participants like you. We worked with compounds but never manufactured."

"What types of compounds and formulas?"

"Formulas for medicines like the one you take. You've had alterations made to two different chromosomes, one for muscle sufficiency and pain suppressant. The other for increased intelligence and brain function but not only that, but also brain cellular regrowth. It's truly amazing."

"So if we go to the Philippines we can get more medicine there."

"No, no quite. The headquarters there deals with virus testing. It's scary really, because in the late 90's they were doing a live virus test and there was an infection break out. It was chaotic and quarantined. But a genius doctor figured it out. He figured out the map of the body and how to navigate it, how to alter and make someone stronger and smarter. It's the most exciting development in the history of the science." And randomly Marta wondered for a moment why everyone wanted her dead. "Why are they trying to kill me so hard?"

"They're killing us off too, all the Outcome agents. You really think they'd just leave you alone?" she watched Aaron carefully, getting nervous as he got more irritated. "Marta, they're shutting down the program completely, which means wiping out everyone. Especially the scientist who invented the formulas and compounds for the medicines." his tone became one of frustration, "But I need to find where I can get more medicine. I need the medicine!" Aaron was desperate as he knew he was running low.

"What are you taking?"

Aaron leaned over the wheel, trying to focus as he watched the road. "100mg of blue and 120mg of green. But I only have 1 blue left and I haven't had green in over 32 hours" Marta turned to look at him surprise written all over her face. "What? What is it?"

"I'm just surprised you're still taking green."

"Surprised? Why?"

"Because you were signed off months ago to stop taking it."

"Why stop taking it?" Aaron was astonished, "What didn't they tell me?!"

"I don't know! I sighed you off to stop taking it. We gave you an immunization so whatever effects it had became permanent. You don't need to take the green pill any more, you haven't for months."

"Why keep me on it then! Why? So they could keep hold on me! Keep me dependent and coming back for more!"

"I don't know!" Marta insisted.

"How the heck can you not know?! That's bull crap! If your so ignorant then why are they after you so desperately?" he yelled at her a little too harsh.

"I don't know Aaron! Just stop the car I wanna get out. Stop the car!"

Aaron hit the brakes, slipping to the shoulder of the road. "Fine, get out. Run. I don't need you because apparently you don't know anything that could help me. It'll be a heck of a lot easy for me to run without you. But tell me, what do you plan to do? Do you have a plan? Where are you gonna go when you step out of this car. You have to have a plan, otherwise you'll be dead in less than 24 hours. I have a plan and it's to wait. Wait for the next person to come for you and maybe they can help me find some medicine."

"But you don't need that medicine if you can get your hands on the virus."

"Wait, what?"

Marta's eyes moved away from Aaron's face, not being able to look him in the eye. "I need some air." she opened the door and stepped out as Aaron followed suit.

He walked around to her side of the car. "What do you mean when you say that? I won't need the medicine any more if I can get the virus?"

Marta finally looked up at him, "Yes, if you can get injected with the live virus then you will build up cells and your body will regenerate and become immune. Then it will be permanent, like with the green pill."

Aaron froze for a second, "Wait you mean you've injected me once already with one of the viruses?"

"Yes, it was experimental and highly dangerous as it makes you extremely sick, but it worked."

Aaron leaned in toward Marta, slightly angry, "You mean that deathly flu I had 6 months ago? The flu that nearly killed me! That was the virus?"

"Yes." she said quietly.

"You could have killed me! Why wasn't I told?!"

"I don't know! I don't make policy!"

"Right, you just load the gun." Aaron said, making her feel like she got slapped in the face; and she realized for the first time he was right. She had never quite thought of any of the participants as real people. Just something there as part of the job to test her theories, formulas, and compounds on them.

Aaron let out a sigh, backing away from Marta, the anger gone from his voice now. "Do you know what happens when we stop taking the blue pill?" she looked up at him and she could see worry slipping through his warrior mask. "Well they told us exactly what would happen and I don't want it to come down to that." They both just watched each other for a moment. Marta's heart sped up again as his blue eyes bore into hers like they had so many times before.

"We better go before they catch our scent again."

"Where are we going?"

Aaron walked back around to his side of the car, opening his door. "To get the virus."

She straightened back up and turned to open her door, "That's in the Philippines."

"I guess that's where we're going then." Aaron said as they both climbed back in and drove off to find a place to stay for the night.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it! Please, PLEASE review, even if it's just a short one! Thanks again, I'll be working on the next chapter:))