Chapter 4: - Losing Control
A.N. Thanks for the reviews, please keep reviewing because I love hearing from you. On with the story
Five minutes later Jamie was the first to regain consciousness and after blinking rapidly for a few minutes his vision became clear again and he rolled over to see that Shalimar had also been knocked out by the force of the blinding light that Lexa had emitted. He turned to Lexa who was also unconscious, he checked her pulse, and it was rapid but definitely there. He went over to Shalimar who was stirring slightly.
"I can't see!" she said grasping for Jamie in a panic.
"Keep blinking" he said calmly "it takes a while but eventually your vision will come back into focus" Shalimar followed Jamie's instructions and blinked rapidly.
"Better?" Jamie asked as she began to calm down.
"Yeah, I can see again, sort of, the edges are still blurred though I guess it'll take time. Anyway we gotta get Lexa out of here now" said Shalimar jumping to her feet but almost over balancing due to her obscured vision.
"Whoa calm down, we need to keep our movements slow or were not going to be a whole lot of help." They both moved the unconscious Lexa slowly onto the Lark. Jamie jumped into the pilot seat and started up the engines. "Hook her up to the monitor so you can keep an eye on her vital signs" yelled Jamie over his shoulder.
"O.K." Shalimar obeyed his commands. "How long will it take us to get back?"
"Thirty – maybe twenty minutes if I throttle it" Jamie responded pushing the limits of the Larks speed.
"I don't know if we have that long, her B.P's dropping rapidly" Shalimar said in concern.
"Check the first aid kit, see if we've got anything useful in their?" Jamie yelled back.
Shalimar frantically searched the medi-kit but found nothing of any real use, plasters weren't going to stop Lexa's splitting skin.
"Nothing! Damn it" Shalimar muttered.
"You've got to hold on Lexa, we'll be back at Sanctuary in…" he checked his watch "ten minutes, just hang on" Jamie yelled more to comfort himself than Lexa.
Lexa began to groan and mumble as she partially regained consciousness for a split second. "Jess…" she whispered, her eyes were rolling into the back of her head and she began fitting, her body jerked in huge spasms and Shalimar stepped back as Lexa's arms whipped upwards uncontrollably and she blasted off two beams of burning white light. The first narrowly missed Jamie's head and instead connected with the main controls, frying various portions of circuitry, the other went wide hitting the apex of the ceiling causing a shower of sparks to rain down upon Shalimar and Jamie.
"Damn it, she's mangled the controls, were losing control of the main thrusters!" he switched the plane to auto pilot and jumped from his seat and began attempting to fix the crackling circuits. Whilst this was going on the plane began to dive downwards picking up speed and reaching a dangerously low altitude.
"DO SOMETHING!" Shalimar yelled "were going to crash if you don't get the controls back online pronto."
"You focus on keeping Lexa alive and I'll work on keeping us in one piece." Jamie responded taking the chewing gum he'd been chewing from his mouth and using it too stick two wires back together and into place upon the circuit board.
"Chewing gum! You're going to save us with chewing gum! That'll never work!" Shalimar screamed.
"It had better I don't see a whole lot of other options!" Jamie said vaulting back into the pilots chair and grasping the controls firmly in his hands. He pushed the button to retake control and rebooted the thrusters. They cut back in and the plane levelled off and Jamie righted there course so that they quickly gained altitude. "Woohoo I was right!" He celebrated "And Baby said chewing chewing gum was a disgusting habit! Ha saved our lives though, she'll never live it down" he laughed.
"Just get us home will you, I don't think Lexa can last much longer, her heart rhythms all over the place and her skin condition is deteriorating in other places now!" she said watching as Lexa's forehead began separating, a void of glowing ooze appearing in-between. Her surrounding skin was tinted green and was being engulfed in the spreading ooze.
"We have full power again now! We can do this, we can make it!" Jamie said enthusiastically.
Shalimar wasn't so convinced and knew that Jamie was trying to convince himself as much as her that everything was going to be alright and that Lexa could pull through this latest trauma.
Lexa's fitting had stopped suddenly and Shalimar watched constantly unwilling to believe that the trouble was over. She was right as the fitting had merely been a prelude to her body shutting down. Lexa went into shock and the heart monitor let out the deafening continuous drone that indicated Lexa was flat lining.
Jamie hit the autopilot button again and ran to the back of the plane to where Shalimar and Lexa were. As he got there Shalimar lost it and went into hysterics. She hugged Lexa too her crying loudly into her. Jamie dragged Shalimar off of Lexa's prone body and grabbed the defibrillator paddles from the cupboard behind Shalimar's head. "Stay out of the way" he yelled, turning the paddles on and pushing them down hard upon Lexa's chest. Lexa's body lurched forward violently and Jamie watched and waited with baited breath for signs of life. When none occurred he repeated the process again and then again.
Suddenly the monitor tone changed it bleeped slowly registering a weak heart beat, they watched attentively as her B.P climbed to a reasonably stable level. "She's not out of the woods yet but she's relatively stable again" Jamie said releasing a breath he was unaware he had been holding. He turned and calmly replaced the paddles in the cupboard and then walked back to the front of the plane to retake control of the piloting.
Shalimar looked at the back of his head as he sat calmly flying the plane. Eventually her voice returned. "Thank you. How did you stay so calm? I can't quite believe I lost it like that I should've been there to help you."
"You reacted totally normally to that sort of situation, there's no need to beat yourself up about it. I'm used to witnessing medical procedures; I just do them on autopilot just like the plane fly's I don't think consciously about what I'm doing it just happens." Jamie explained.
"How do you do that though, switch off all emotion I mean?" Shalimar questioned.
"Easy it's my coping mechanism. I ended up in the care system once I got out of Genomex, one of the many homes I was placed in was with a doctor who performed back street surgeries, they found about my abilities and exploited them for their purposes. I grew quite proficient at certain things although I don't like doing it. It brings back some pretty nasty memories that I'd rather not have to deal with so Adam lets me stay away from the medical stuff as much as possible" He said all of this very matter of factly in a way that showed he wasn't looking for sympathy at all.
"How'd you end up in the foster system?" Shalimar probed.
"Long story and I have no time or inclination to tell it I'm afraid. We'll be landing in about two minutes, were going to need Lexa and the D.N.A sample we collected ready for moving when we get there. I don't think her vitals will remain stable for long." He brought Shalimar's thoughts back to Lexa and her predicament and neatly changed the topic of conversation without seeming rude.
"She'll be alright though! We can save her!" Shalimar made an attempt at bravado which was ruined slightly by her frightened tone of voice. She looked through the windscreen and witnessed the plane flying through the virtual cliff barrier of Saveria as the plane came to a stand still.
