DISCLAIMER: I own nothing and no recognizable characters from Hellboy. I am just a poor college student who also happens to be a rabid fan and this just happens to be a fanfiction that my mind came up with that I feel like sharing with other fans. I make absolutely NO money from this fanfic. It is merely for fun and hopefully the enjoyment of other fans. Please don't sue and fans please enjoy.

Chapter 7: A Matter of Trust

The storm blew itself out quickly that night, but even so, no one in the Thatcher household noticed. They were all in the throws of deep slumber. At least that was true until Martha was awoken by some strange sounds emanating from her own bedroom. Sleepily, redhead got up off the couch and, after wrapping a blanket around her shoulders to ward off the cool early morning air, lumbered over to check on the disturbance.

A whimper escaped the bedroom the moment Martha opened the door. Alarmed the redhead quickly called out Abe's name, but there was no answer. Hearing another cry and the sounds of a struggle Martha flung the door wide, dropping her blanket onto floor in the process, and rushed into the bedroom. Her hand groped for the light switch as she tied desperately to figure out what was going on. Had there been a break-in? Was there a robber? Was Abe okay? Her mind raced with questions as her hand finally found the switch and flipped it on.

The soft light bathed the room in its golden glow. Martha immediately let out a sigh of relief to find her initial worries of a burglar unfounded, but then she grew again concerned when she saw Abe.

Caught in a tangle of blankets, the Icthyo sapien body was struggling against an unseen foe, his mind in the grips of an awful nightmare. Abe was gasping at the air, breathing hard and occasionally moaning as the dream continued to taunt him with its horrible visions. His hands clenched the blankets convulsively and he strained to get away from the terrible apparitions of his mind, but could not.

Martha hurried towards the Icthyo sapien, intent only on saving him from the nighttime horrors that inflicted him, but as soon as she reached the foot of the bed, her mind was attacked.

The redhead fell to her knees gasping as her mind was assaulted by blurred images and flashes of pain, sorrow and suffering. They tore into her and through her making it hard to see even though her eyes were open, but somehow she managed to think. Somehow Martha knew this stream of confusing and painful information was from Abe, was from his past, and that she had to wake him up. She had to bring him back from the misery that torchered his sleeping mind.

"Abe," she croaked, reaching up and over the bed to shake him. Her brain felt like it was going to split in two from the pain. "Abraham" she called more frantically, hauling herself up to shake the Icthyo sapien harder. "Wake up!"

Abe's eyes shot open to stare up at the women above him with fear. His pupils dilated fully in terror as he looked at Martha without any recognition. His wide frightened eyes did not see her. Those beautiful blue orbs still focused solely on his past.

With a cry the Icthyo sapien flinched away from Martha, but the mess of blankets caught his legs. They unbalance Abe and he fell off the side of the bed and onto the floor. Kicking fiercely he knocked the covers away and scrambled back into the corner of the room where he sat huddled and shaking as the nightmare scenarios continued to play out in his mind.

Catching her breath, Martha staggered to her feet, one hand clutching her head while the other sought the support of the bed frame. Her head was still spinning from the massive and painful input it had just received, but now the images that had plague her were gone. In a few moments the spinning had stopped entirely and Martha glanced over to where Abe was still trembling in the corner. She had to help him.

The redhead watched the Icthyo sapien's eyes track her progression around the bed and towards him. He now saw her but for some reason was still afraid. Abe's fear grew with every step the redhead took towards him. Soon enough Martha could feel that fear like it was a palatable force, infecting every cell of her body, but she forcefully pushed it away. Abe needed her. How Martha knew this she was not sure, but she firmly understood there was something she must do that night to bring Abe back from his memories of the past.

Nearing the Icthyo sapien, Martha quietly knelt to the floor and offered him her hand.

Abe blinked and looked at Martha's extended hand as his shivering ceased. Then his gaze glided up to Martha's face. "Are you real?" he whispered hoarsely as if afraid of what the answer would be.

"Yes." Martha reassured, quietly extending her hand a little further. "Yes, I am real."

Abe looked down at the redheads hand again – her long pale fingers gently reaching for his – and slowly extended his own slender blue fingers to meet hers. Abe's touch was soft, whispering gently along her skin as if he was afraid she would disappear. Then he moved forward and lightly gripped her hand in both his own.

His voice quiver the next time he spoke. "I was so scared that you… that this was all just a dream. That I was still there and only fanaticized of a life after." He then reached up from Martha's hand to cradle her face, lightly tracing his fingers over her features and running his hands through her hair to full prove to himself that she was not just a figment of his imagination.

Martha let him do it. She just closed her eyes and patiently waited for him to be done. The redhead had to admit she was confused. What Abe had said before didn't really making any sense to her, but curiosity could wait. Questions were defiantly not what the Icthyo sapien needed right now.

Finally Martha felt Abe's hands retract. She opened her eyes to find his clear blue ones staring intently into hers. Then he looked away, ashamed. "You saw didn't you?"

Believing the Icthyo sapien meant the strange visions of his past she went to nod, but he seemed to already know the answer. "I'm sorry," he whispered brokenly. "I'm so sorry."

"Abe," Martha spoke in a calming tone as she continued to kneel beside him. "It's okay."

"No it's not!" Abe said roughly. Then his eyes widened in panic again "Oh no, April! Is April okay?"

"She's fine." The redhead said with a smile that was still a bit shaky from her ordeal. It would never cease to amaze her how considerate Abe was. Even with all his problems he could still worry about someone else. "Whatever happened didn't spread outside this room, though, I probably should go check on her just in case."

---

April was fine, of course; totally oblivious that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. She could really sleep through anything, Martha thought. The trouble was getting her to bed in the first place, but after that, the little girl was practically dead to the world until the next morning. The redhead smiled quietly at the sleeping form of her little girl before turning away and shutting the door again.

---

Martha sighed and sagged against the wall outside her bedroom for a moment trying to collect her thoughts before entering the room once more. When the redhead finally did enter, she found Abe still sitting in the corner with his back to the wall, but now he had also dragged over one of the large blankets from the floor and had wrapped it protectively around his shoulders. He seemed to be staring at nothing when Martha came back into the room, but his focus immediately snapped back to her as she walked towards him. The Icthyo sapien opened one his arms, offering Martha shelter within the blanket and she took it. The redhead knew Abraham didn't mean anything intimate by the gesture. It was just an offer of comfort, to help her as well as himself. They sat together in the lit bedroom for a time, wrapped in the recesses of the blanket just trying to ward off the few remaining phantom horrors they had shared.

"I'm so sorry," the Icthyo sapien said again after a while. "I didn't mean–"

"Of course you didn't" Martha cut in tiredly resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. "As I said, it's fine. Just forget about it."

After that, the strange pair sat together in silence for a while until Martha got up the energy to speak again. "Abraham, those images were from your past, weren't they. Why do you have memories like that?"

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," she added quickly remembering the events of the day before. "I just… thought I'd ask…"

Abe silently considered the woman sitting next to him with his arm wrapped around her and her head resting gently on his shoulder. Even after all the redhead had seen and felt that night she still wasn't scared of him. And now, he supposed, was as good a time as any to tell her what she wanted to know.

"Before my current life," the Icthyo sapien began softly lifting his head a little too look unseeingly out over the bed. "I lived in a lab. I was a possession. A specimen." He struggled a bit with the words as he tried to describe the intense situation he had been in. "I was owned by that lab and they had the – the power to do anything they wanted to me. I don't really remember much about it, just bits and pieces, and, frankly I am grateful I don't, but once in a while…" Abe paused then. A single shiver ran through his body as his mind once more brought those horrible memories to bare from where they were hidden inside his head, but the warmth and closeness of Martha helped bring him back to the present before he was again lost to them. The Icthyo sapien forcefully pushed them back to where they normally lurked, buried in the back of his mind and continued with his tale. "No clue how may years I was there. No clue exactly what was done to me and I have absolutely no memory of anything before then, so I can only guess that lab was all that came before." Abe gave a kind of sad, far away smile at the next thought. "My only condolence is that I was a one of a kind lab rat so those scientists weren't allowed to dissect me."

When Abe finished, Martha was staring at him in wide eyed shock and it took her a moment to find her voice. "That's what I saw?!?"

Abe only nodded.

The redhead's face had twisted into a look of disgust, but it was not aimed at Abe. Rather it was directed towards those people of the past who had done such atrocities to the kind and caring Icthyo sapien she knew. "Those freaking monsters!"

Abe almost smiled at the redhead's word choice. It was quite similar to phrases he himself had been called countless time and it was nice to hear those words aimed at someone else who, for once, deserved them. Abe glanced over and seeing the fierce emotion still plastered across Martha's face, he quickly added. "Don't worry. I was found by good people. Now my life is very different."

"But then why did I see it?" Martha asked once she had calmed down a bit. She couldn't understand how anyone could not see Abe as a person, as an individual. It was just so obvious to her that he was his own personality, his own being, that, in her mind, treating him otherwise was simply inhuman.

"That I don't know," the Icthyo sapien said uncertainly. "I haven't had a dream of my past that vivid in years, maybe even decades now. It just all seemed so real..." Abe shook himself a little to get back his mind back on track with Martha's question. "As to why you saw it," Abe continued a little guiltily. "That really was my fault."

The redhead just looked at him questioningly, waiting for the Icthyo sapien to continued.

"You see I have this ability… I can… well…" Abe was flustered. He had to tell her, it wouldn't be fair otherwise, but what would she think of him once he did. The Icthyo sapien sighed. Oh well, here it goes. "I'm a telepath,"

Martha blinked.

"And an empath… and have a bit of psychometric* ability," Abe finished a little lamely.

Martha blinked at him again before bursting out in a fit of laughter. It felt good to laugh, to know that even with all the crap she had been through this morning she could still laugh.

Abe looked at Martha a little despairingly as her giggles died down. Now what was he supposed to do?

"That," the redhead said a little breathless wiping a few tears from her eyes before nestling further into the blanked both she and Abe shared. "Was a good one. Have any more jokes Abe?" The she caught sight of his face. "Ohmigod. You're serious."

Abe gave a small nod to Martha, but not looking at her. He was maybe just a little afraid of what her reaction would be. People tended not to like it when they realized he could read their minds.

"Okay…" Martha said resting her head on Abe's shoulder again, still smiling a bit. "Then what am I thinking now?"

"Are you giving me permission to look?" Abe asked quietly still staring strait ahead.

"Sure." Martha said lightly with a nod still not quiet certain she totally believed him. It just sounded so... unreal. "Go ahead."

"You are thinking how funny it would be if I really were a telepath and could read your mind."

At Abe's words Martha grew very still. That had been the exact wording she had been thinking inside her mind. Slowly, the redhead raised her face to looked strait at the Icthyo sapien next to her.

"It was just what was on the surface," Abe said quickly looking down at her finally and trying desperately to stop the fit he thought was coming. "I didn't dig deep or anything."

But the outburst never came. "What's it like?" Martha asked quietly, her eyes shinning with wonder. "To know what people are thinking."

Abe smiled at her, overjoyed that she still wasn't afraid. "Annoying," he said smartly as an answer to her question.

The redhead's brow wrinkled in confusion. How could something like being a telepath be annoying?

Abe's smile widened and quickly went on to explain. "It's kind of one of those misconceptions, that telepathy is so great to have. I actually learned how to turn my telepathic ability completely off eventually because I got so sick of everyone else's chatter in my head. I didn't want to know this lady's shopping list or when's the last time that guy got laid. I just didn't." He paused for a moment to breath before continuing. "The empathy and psychometry I can pretty much turn off at will also. Getting depressed just because the person standing next to you is or knowing the history of every single pencil you touched is not all it is cracked up to be.

"Huh," Martha said thoughtfully after a moment of considering what her companion had said. "When you put it like that, it does sound like it could get kind of annoying."

By this time Abe was practically grinning like a Cheshire cat. He was so happy Martha was still being so accepting of him, but then the Icthyo sapien's thoughts turned to a more serious topic. "Now I always keep my psychic abilities in check. Their always in there 'off mode' by default. It's just the way I trained them to be. That does bring up the disturbing question of why you were able to see my nightmares even though I should not have been projecting." The Icthyo sapien chewed his lip thoughtfully for a second. "I guess my barriers must have slipped sometime in the night. I really must check on that sometime."

"Anyway," Abe said changing gears. "How about you. Why did you take in someone as weird like me? Most people find my appearance disturbing and even down right scary not to mention my other, less prominent abilities."

Martha gave a very unladylike snort. "Scary, you? You're about as scary as a puppydog."

Now it was Abe's turn to blink. "I can honestly say I have never been compared to a 'puppydog' before," he said cocking his head to the side in consideration. "But really, how did you know I wasn't a danger?"

A faraway look came into the redhead eyes as she leaned against Abe. Now it was her turn to look into the past. Abe had done his show and tell for the day and now it was time for hers. "I know scary men," she began softly. "I was married to one once, and compared to him you aren't even remotely dangerous." Martha sighed as her own sorted past came rushing back. "He was a real piece of work, but I loved him. Then I got pregnant with April and things had to change. It wasn't just going to be me in that screwed up relationship anymore, but also her. A child and so I got out." Martha then smiled a bit at the thought of past friends and family. "I wouldn't have been able to get away without help. I wouldn't have been able to save April from that kind of life without help. I know my resolution would have faltered sooner or later, but I did have help and I have never forgotten what all those people did for me. I am eternally grateful and I guess ever since then I have a kind of want to help people in need. When I saw you down by the sea. When I saw how much pain you were in I just couldn't turn a blind eye and, besides," she continued with a hint of a smile. "there was something in your eyes that told me you where okay."

"So I have trustful eyes," Abe mused as he digested the information Martha had given him. It made sense in the end. Why she was out here alone with only her daughter.

Martha nodded at the Icthyo sapien's words even though she knew it was more then just that. Under normal circumstances, Abe radiated a kind of calm presence wherever he went. Martha wasn't sure he knew he was doing it, but she was sure that anyone who took enough time to talk to the Icthyo sapien for a few minute would soon find themselves overlooking his unique outer covering.

The redhead's thoughts wandered in the silence that followed. "Abe?" she said after a bit. "There's some you should remember." The Icthyo sapien cocked his head to listen to Martha's quiet words. "I know memories can sometimes be scary things, believe me, I really do know, but I have found you should never let them haunt you. It is the past. And even though whatever happened back then will always be apart of you, you also have a future that is waiting for you. All you have to do is embrace it and it's yours."

Abe then beamed at Martha, knowing the wisdom that was held within her words.

After that the two sat quietly side by side in the warmth of the blanket, comfortable with the companionable silence that had come between them.

Martha was the first to break that silence. "You know we should get up."

"Mmm." Abe grunted with his head resting against the wall and his eyes closed.

"We should check your stitches to make sure none of them ripped out."

"Mmmmmmmmm."

---

A little while later they were both up and happy to see there was no need to call William.

It had been a bit of a struggle, though. Both Abe and Martha had been reluctant to leave the warmth the blanket had provided and so the actual getting up part of the task had taken quite a while, but now they were saying goodnight once again and getting ready for bed.

It was a little funny; Martha realized looking at Abe one last time before turning away to trundle off to the couch. She practically didn't even notice Abe's blue skin and other unique features anymore. I mean of course she saw them, but she no longer recognized them as different. All she really saw now was the being, Abraham Sapien, who had somehow, at sometime, grown to become her friend.

TBC…

Psychometric* or Psychometry: The ability to see and object's past through contact with said object. Also called 'object reading' by some.

Author note: To anyone who reads these author note (by the way I really appreciate those who do) and specifically the one in chapter 4, I just wanted to tell people that I have finally gotten over my indecision about which way this fanfic is going. Out of two different directions, I have decided it will venture on the more complex and longer route towards an ending. I guess in the end I decided the other way was too simplistic… Anyway, what this means to you, my dear readers, is this will be a pretty long fanfic with lots of new characters both main and side to meet. I hope you continue to enjoy anyway! Thanks again for reading and please review.

As to Abe's past: As I have said before I never read the comics which I know go into Abe 'official' past and therefore don't know it and made up my own. Two pretty good 'beginning' Abe pieces that probably has a little influence one my ideas about Abe's past are "The Beginning" by interesting-thot and "What the Plumbers Found" by epalladino. They are both really good fanfics to read and I would suggest to anyone.

SesshiraRayu, I could not believe how fast you were with reviewing! I was so happy. It was like five seconds the new chapter was up and bam, new review! Definite points toward loyalty and good girliness. Thanks so much. I love your support.

To dear Peya Luna. Thank you so much for your review. It was so quick in coming after I put up this new chapter, it was simply amazing! I like blinked and was struck by new review happiness! I am little sorry to say your curiousity about reactions to Red will have to wait a while. The scene is in the script but it's not until some on the very last chapters. (sigh with a smile) Guess you'll just have to keep reading, oh darn… (joking giggle). I really enjoy you impute and thanks so much.

Nightshade, thanks for the review! I can now breath easier knowing that you will not desert me just because I have an overactive imagination… Yay! Sorry about shortness. I took a bit of a break for the 4th of July weekend. Had to meet with some friend, etc… any truthfully most anything would have been short after chapter 5… and now this one... Anyway, hope you liked the explanations of the past(s) and see you soon again!

Echodex: Thank You!!! You review was much appreciated. I saw you reviewed on chapter four "come what may" and I'm excited to see what you think of 5, 6 and this one. Please review again. (I also went your profile just because I'm waaaaaaaaay too curious for my own good and saw that your about as new as I am when it comes to . If you need any help figuring out how to add a new chapter to your transformers story I can give you advice… Believe me, it can get confusing…. It took me forever to figure it out and afterward it was like I couldn't believe how easy it was…) Anyway, thanks again…

Sapienlover, Glad you appreciated Marta's PJ. I just felt the need for something a little fun and useful at the same time and voila penguin printed clothing. Your reviews and insight is always appreciated so thank you and please continue to review.

P.S. Chapter Title: Another Billie Joel song but I used it anyway because I thought it fit this chapter well - "A Matter of Trust." This one's more bouncy then the last.