"Was it a nightmare being stuck in the same room with Brennan for four days?" Shalimar asked her friend, while they were walking towards Emma's room.
Emma snorted. "More than you know." She then glanced over at Brennan who was talking with Adam. Brennan, sensing this, looked back at her not saying anything.
"I don't know how you two managed to survive sleeping in the same bed." Shalimar's chuckle was playful.
"Well, one morning one of us did awake with someone's feet close to their nose." Emma smiled as they went inside her room.
"Ew!" Shalimar held her nose for a second.
"Lucklilly it wasn't me," Emma said and both laughed to this.
"You two are deffinetly like children!"
"Shouldn't just Brennan be the child? After all, I am more mature." Emma unzipped her bag.
"Sticking your feet in his nose? Yeah, that's very mature, Emma." Shalimar shook her head and helped her friend unpack.
"I love teasing him." Emma shrugged.
"So does he, it seems." Shalimar looked over at Emma and held her gaze like that.
Noticing this, Emma looked around, not moving her head. "Is there something on my face?" she asked.
"You seem different," Shalimar said.
"How?" Emma stopped what ever she was doing.
"I don't know. You just are...but eh, maybe it's only me." Shalimar took some clothes out of the bag. "You've only been gone for like four days and..." She snorted. "This is what happens when you're used to seeing a person every day," She said.
"Yeah." Emma agreed and both giggled. She then glanced at her friend. Different? she thought.
Standing at the edge of the bridge, Emma breathed in deeply, closing her eyes, letting her face feel the chilly night breeze. Her long flowery gown somehow followed the waves of the wind so perfectly.
"Emma!" Brennan shouted to her when seeing the girl standing there. Breaking her moment, Emma turned her face to look at Brennan who ran over to her. She was quiet.
"Wha-..what are you doing?" Almost out of breath, while searching for Emma, Brennan now stood next to her. Her shining eyes looked gently back at him as a soft and fragile smile appeared on the girl's face.
"Emma," he called her quietly; this almost creepy silent behavior of hers worried him even more. Hearing the midnight wind accompanied by the quiet running of the river below them, Brennan reached over, taking Emma's hand to distant her from the edge where she was standing. But Emma only looked at it and gently removed her hand. Once again her gaze was returned to the river. "Why are you standing here? You'll catch a damn cold!" Brennan didn't like this. And he noticed her dress; it was made of silk and it fitted her so well. She had never showed this piece of clothing to anyone before. It was an innocent picture of her standing here, on this bridge. A picture which despite having its own strange, quiet beauty it could not remove the feeling of something which didn't belong there.
"Don't worry, Bren. Why do you always worry about me? I am fine, I always am," Emma told him with a quiet and such gentle voice, it felt as if a fairy was speaking, not a mere human being. Her eyes did not avoid his.
"Let's get back to Sanctuary before you freeze to death." Brennan was about to take off his jacket when he saw her shaking her head. "No," he heard her say.
"Why? What are you doing here anyway?"
Placing her hands gently on his face, Emma showed her own smile again. "I'm saving you, Bren. Please, don't worry. I care for you," she told him and turned towards the water one last time before she jumped from the bridge and into the running river which by now became louder and more aggressive.
"Emma!" Brennan shouted after her.
Opening his eyes, they met the nightly shadows on the ceiling of his room. Turning his face, Brennan exhaled and closed his eyes for a moment. Only a dream, he told himself, happy about this realization. "Only a..." and opened his eyes again. "What if...!" Jumping off the bed, he rushed towards Emma's room. Reaching her door, he then stopped. It was closed. Putting his one hand on it and the other on the handle, he swallowed, looking at the handle and hoping he was wrong. Then turning it, Brennan slowly opened the door, at first just enough to have a clear view of the bed where Emma was supposed to be. He couldn't see too well, the darkness played with his sight, not letting him make out the picture. This forced him to open the door wider and enter the room. He didn't close it. Walking quietly over to the bed, Brennan stopped and then kneeled down next to it. Placing his hands softly on the sheets at the edge of the bed, his brown eyes could now see Emma's face. She was here after all, and she slept silently.
Closing his eyes for a moment like the first time, Brennan let relief wash over him. Good, he thought and opened his browns. He wanted to touch her, feel her skin beneath his fingers so he could be certain she was truly there, that he wasn't dreaming again. Moving his hand close to her arm, he was about to place it for a short moment there, when he decided not to in the last second. "No, she's here. It isn't a dream. I don't want to wake her," his mind spoke as he watched her. Brennan then stood up and looked at the sleeping girl one more time before he went through the door and closed it behind him. She's safe. His night wouldn't be restless after all.
The next day, the mutant x members were in the kitchen, having lunch. Taking a piece of the food with his chopsticks, Brennan looked over at Emma, sitting opposite him.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked her, trying to conceal the real meaning of this question of what the others could view as a simple start of a conversation.
But Emma didn't see it like that; she sensed that small feeling of protectiveness in him. She looked back at him. It wasn't anything to worry about. Smiling, she replied, "Like a baby. You?"
"Not so bad." Leaning his head to the left and right as he answered.
"Good." Emma swallowed her food and nodded.
"How about you two?" Brennan then asked Jesse and Shalimar as he hoped it wouldn't seem strange that he was only asking Emma. Not that the others really noticed this.
"Woke up screaming as usual." Shalimar shrugged and smiled.
"You should've heard her. Terrible." Jesse looked at her and both laughed quietly.
Brennan then glanced over at Emma, wondering if she knew what they were talking about. Emma shook her head, being as puzzled as him. She didn't sense anything unusual anyway.
After a while Brennan was staring at his empty plate before he looked at Emma again, this time with something else in his mind.
"I'm... I'm not sure," her mind said. "No," Emma only replied out loud with this one word, not looking back at him and took the plate before she stood up.
Jesse turned his head towards her. "What?" She was now standing next to him, putting down the plates.
"Nothing." Emma smiled. "I was thinking of having some extra cake but..." tapping her belly, "I need to watch my line." She then giggled.
"Oh come on, Emma, you look great no matter what you eat," Jesse said.
"Aw, really sweet of you, Jesse." Emma smiled again and tapped his back lightly before she turned to exit the kitchen. Her eyes wandered over to Brennan's who picked this up and found Emma's.
He wanted to mention the little "thing" which happened between them on the last night in the hotel room. Not knowing why, he felt a tiny speck of fear coming from Emma's eyes. Both of them didn't think of that night as anything special. And he understood her rejection to bring it up. It could only burry them deeper under the pile of questions about the relationship between them. Make that night seem like it had opened a new chapter for Emma and Brennan, when it could've simply had been a sudden impulse from both sides. For now, these two people somehow agreed on it being nothing to think further of.