The Illusions of Death
Emma DeLauro was dead no longer. Two months after her demise had her standing outside Sanctuary in the pouring rain. The alarm codes had been changed again and Emma was forced to wait until one of them realised she was waiting outside. Her clothes were caked with mud and dirt and water and sand and her short dark crimson hair felt like straw when she slowly ran a hand through it.
For an hour she stood out there in the pale moonlight until the door softly opened and Brennan opened the door.
"Em? Is it really you?" The elemental asked, the breath hitching in his throat as though it had constricted and every word burnt out, scraping against his sandpaper windpipe.
"Yeah, Bren."
"You better not be a ghost."
Emma answered his pleas by opening her arms and hugging him. He wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her scent. Emma broke off the hug and Brennan reluctantly retracted his arms. He led her to the dining room where Adam, Shal, Jesse and a dark haired woman were having dinner. They looked up almost lazily at Emma and then gaped.
Shalimar was the first to react, leaping from her chair, knocking aside her steak and hugging Emma fiercely like the lioness she resembled. Jesse stood up quickly after a minute and embraced her, saying nothing. Emma however felt the different waves of emotions sweeping into her mind like different colours of liquids, coming together in a big foamy mess.
The dark haired woman looked coldly at Emma and looked to the still seated Adam for support. She found none when Adam stood and hugged her, not as tight as the others admittedly but just as warmly.
"Who's this?" The woman asked.
"Lexa," Shalimar said, looking proudly upon Emma even though she looked as dirty as a pigsty, "this is Emma DeLauro." In that instant, Lexa felt her position threatened but Emma's sweet smile melted her resolve.
Emma walked to her old room with Brennan's arm wrapped around her shoulders. She opened the door and found only the bed remained. Her possessions were in two large cardboard boxes by the foot of her bed. No signs that anyone lived here before except for the boxes.
"I'm sorry, Em." Brennan whispered as Emma surveyed the room.
"No, it's fine. I need a clean break."
"You mean," Brennan looked disappointed, "you'll be leaving?"
"I don't know, Bren. But right now, I just want some sleep." She rubbed Brennan's arm with her hand and then politely closed the door as the elemental slowly made his way to his own room.
Emma sighed and for a moment she took in her room. Here was safe. Here was home. She opened a box and found her clothes. She rummaged through her clothing until she found pajama bottoms. The room was colder than she remembered, but then again Emma had been gone a while and maybe it was just her mind. Even so, she put a long sleeved tee on.
She curled up under the covers but sleep escaped her. After a couple of hours when she found the others were sleeping, she crept out of her room and sat cross-legged on the cool marble in front of the fountain. The water always relaxed her and now Emma needed the properties of the classical element more than ever. She breathed deeply and let her mind clear; of death, resurrection, Lexa, Brennan, her room, everything. Then she meditated as she had often done, looking like a statue.
Brennan stood in the halls, directly behind her. His chest was bare in the cold but he barely registered it as he watched protectively over his psionic best friend.
Emma always watched Adam and the members of Mutant X in their meetings. She was never in the rooms but she now she sensed what was being said, even though she was nowhere near them. Her powers had been growing and developing every day since she had gasped into breath and crawled from her crypt.
She felt grateful for Lexa. She was the replacement in the position which Emma had filled previously. But now Emma enjoyed being outside the team, not putting her life on the line for Adam whenever he demanded it. The four elements were back in balance with Shal as water, Lexa as air, Brennan as fire, Jesse as earth and Adam as the force which binded them all together.
Lexa Pierce still didn't trust Emma and she knew why. Emma had seen the looks Lexa gave Jesse over dinner and breakfast and she just stopped snickering over Lexa's crush on their blond molecular.
She felt the same things between Brennan and Shal and she smiled inwardly that two of her best friends were getting together.
Late at night she could hear their passionate moans and took them as vaguely as hearing Jesse typing on the compter. But once in a while, she heard a different voice in Brennan's head.
Her own.
It had begun as an exercise of her power one night. Emma had simply focused on the person - in this case Jesse - and slipped inside their dreams. She had slipped out almost immediately but then started doing more and more.
One night she went through the lands of their minds. Adam dreamt of yellow liquid in a lab, shattering his face like a falling sheet of glass. Lexa dreamt of Jesse, his blue eyes almost startling azure against a perfect sky. Shal saw her teeth ripping open a steak and gushing scarlet blood, spraying it over her face. That was the scariest of her dreams.
Jesse dreamt of candy. Slabs of golden brown gingerbread the size of walls, coffee tables made of dark chocolate and icing, bricks of chocolate fudge brownies and goblets of sugar glass. A river of sweet liquid split the floor while Jesse wandered through the house, encountering lollipop gates. But then the house cracked in a hundred and Jesse was a lonely boy, huddled in a corner.
Brennan was the biggest surprise in his sleepy psyche. Green hills and trees and a sky littered with thousands of stars. He was sat next to a woman who Emma couldn't see at first but then a candle sprouted into life and she saw that it was herself.
Go figure, she thought and watched the couple talk and felt her heart lighten.
The day afterwards, all she had to do was focus and see could see the auras of those around her. Jesse's was blue, not a deep dark blue but a sky blue scattered with patches of light grey. Shal's was golden spiked with fiery red and orange. Lexa's was a purple interchanging with the rare bursts of soft green.
Brennan's was a golden brown with shades of earthy green and deep black with areas of white like clouds. Whenever he looked at her, the white would grow.
And her own? A blend of turquoise and purple and silver that remained a mystery even when she knew about the auras.
Soon the redheaded psionic was finding life inside Sanctuary returning to a certain amount of normality. She was soon going into the mall more and those around them found the Emma they knew and loved returning to them. She went to the mall with Shal and enjoyed movies with Jesse and assisted Adam in his lab. But most of all, she found herself connecting herself with her best friend more.
One night, she sought him out in his bedroom and sat cross legged at the foot of it. He jolted out of sleep and looked blearily at Emma.
"Em? What's up?"
"I just wanted to…can I come in your bed?" Brennan nodded and Emma slipped inside the sheets.
"Thanks, Brennan." She smiled at him and turned her back on him. A few moments passed with Brennan gazing at Emma before turning into his own sleep.
In the morning he awoke and found the space beside empty. Experiencing fear of her return being an idyllic dream, he quickly put on a tee shirt and jeans and hurried towards the living area. His heart and breath returned to normal with a jolt when he saw her in the kitchen, her green tank top gleaming in the golden sunshine, humming to the radio. She smiled at him and passed him a large stack of his favourite breakfast of pancakes, maple syrup and French toast.
Soon Emma was coming into his room every night if only for five minutes. Often she found him reading in bed. Whitman or Angelou or Blake. These books would always be the last thing they read together on the long nights. Before they would read Shakespeare or read folk tales and fairy tales of golden-red phoenixes, ivory unicorns, blonde and raven haired princesses, turquoise finned mermaids and dreamy landscapes. Most times they talked about everything; Mutant X, the government, dreams, desires, hopes, the weather, favourite things and things that they only ever spoke about between each other.
In the mornings, she would always make him and herself breakfast before the others woke up as a kind of thank you. One morning, he asked her something over toast and eggs;
"Why did you come to me?"
"You mean, why not Shal or Jesse?"
"Yeah."
"You have a calming influence, Bren." That was all she said and to Brennan that was enough.
The sleeping arrangements never influenced Brennan and Shal's relationship and that laid Emma's conscience to rest because the last thing she wanted to do was ruin her best friend's chance of happiness. But then when the two of them made love, Emma heard his thoughts and bit her lip when she thought that the handsome Mutant was falling for her.
So Emma's life became a jigsaw, like the ones she used to like playing with as a child. When she re-entered the Mutant X scene, she became a rogue piece, that didn't fit in. But then her edges began to change and then she slid into place, not easily but definitely. Even Lexa was being almost friendly to her and Emma felt grateful for it. She worked in the lab but didn't in the field.
She was Mutant X 1.0 as Jesse referred to it as and Emma liked that analogy. She had died and had been resurrected like a flower after the cold of winter emerging glorious in the spring. Her old life was ended, the new one had begun but with fond memories of the old one like a person with childhood scents and colours that make him feel safe in the childhood memories.
So Emma didn't think of good being her and evil being those who opposed her. She strides the divide, not caring about the light and darkness only about her life and her friends.
And then during Christmas, Brennan and Shal broke up. Emma was the intermediary at first until the two created a bridge of friendship between them.
Emma DeLauro was safe and warm and loved and her mind was free of all doubt when one morning, when she turned back to Brennan with muffins and bacon, he wasn't at the counter but right in front of her. He dipped his head and kissed her softly and lovingly.
Love conquers all? Yes, it does. Even death.
Fin