Disclaimer—see chapter one
A/N: Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews and encouragement—I so much appreciate it!! I am having great fun writing this story, and I get so excited to see your reviews, thank you all!! (Viviana—I'm so sorry I misunderstood, thank you for your kindness and patience!) As always, please let me know what you think of this latest chapter!! And now back to the angst…!
House of Dreams—chapter ten
Jesse and Lexa trailed after Brennan as he strode towards the Helix.
"So how do you expect to find her?" Lexa asked Brennan as she ran to catch up with him.
Brennan didn't even spare her a glance, but handed her a piece of paper before reaching the Helix and beginning to prepare her for flight. Lexa unfolded the paper and stared at it a moment, Jesse reading over her shoulder.
"How did you get—," Jesse began to sputter.
"Never mind," Brennan paused while waiting for the plane's door to open, "You don't want to know." He entered the Helix and plopped down in the pilot seat, not even looking to see if Jesse and Lexa were behind him before closing the doors and starting her up.
"Ok, then," Lexa spoke quietly, "Let's go get her."
Shalimar came suddenly awake with a loud, gasping breath, looking around her in panic. She was still in chains, and she had been hoisted so that her feet were dangling inches above the ground. Her arms were screaming at the added weight, and she desperately stretched her toes towards the floor, trying to relieve the building pressure on her upper body. "Argh," she finally groaned, giving up reaching the floor and kicking her legs in frustrated anger, screaming more as blinding spasms jerked her body and echoed in her pounding head. She dropped her chin to her chest, moaning as her head lolled slightly to the right. She watched through blurry eyes as drops of blood dripped from her face and seemed to slow in time before teasingly agonizing her by reaching the floor. She was bleeding, her mind registered with some surprise. She had been struck. Her forehead creased with worry; she couldn't remember it happening.
Brennan's hands tightened even further as he grasped the Helix's control stick, wincing at the pain from his bruised hand. Shalimar was going to be mad at him when she saw the holes he had punched in the wall, he ruefully thought to himself, refusing to believe she wouldn't be back to see it. She had put up a big fuss when asked to repaint it a few months back. He could feel two sets of eyes boring into the back of his head, but purposely ignored them. A tense silence had filled the cabin, but it suited him just fine.
Jesse pursed his lips as he narrowed his eyes at the back of Brennan's head. He could tell from Brennan's stance he was not in the mood to talk, but he wanted some answers. He cleared his throat.
"Brennan," Jesse paused, but he continued to ignore him. "Brennan, just—just tell me you didn't kill anyone to get that information."
Lexa looked at Jesse thoughtfully before turning expectantly back towards Brennan.
Brennan sighed heavily as he could feel them waiting for him. "No," he finally muttered, "not quite."
"Well, that's good to know," Lexa sarcastically intoned, but bit her lip when Jesse glared at her. Brennan did not volunteer any more information, but continued to stare out the front window; the silence resumed.
Shalimar came to a conclusion. She had had enough and could not rely on anyone else to help her. No one knew where she was. She was alone, but she was not afraid. She just had to get her body to cooperate with her head that was all. She studiously ignored the nagging worry at the back of her mind about how much the required exertion would cost her with the governor sticking out of the back of her neck. She took several deep breaths, squeezed her eyes shut for a few beats before opening them and feeling them convert to the familiar golden yellow. For a moment she felt daringly free and confident, but then screamed at the excruciating twinges that quickly deepened into racking convulsions. She shook violently as she bit her lip in her attempt to clench her teeth, even as she gathered what little strength remained and yanked down hard against the chains with all her might.
Brennan's hand jerked just as the Helix was landing, causing her to hit the ground with a rough bump. He shot up out of the seat and impatiently rapped his fingers against the side wall while he waited for the doors to fully open.
"Nice landing," Lexa commented, but quieted when she took in Brennan's glance.
"She's here," he gritted before striding determinedly down the ramp.
Jesse and Lexa followed him outside, coming to an abrupt stop as they took in their location.
"Where's here?" Jesse shook his head in confusion. They were surrounded by a forest of pine trees.
The first sensation Shalimar felt was that of a burning itch around her mouth, then the coldness of the earth against her sensitive cheek. She pried an eye open, gasping as ragged coughs tore through her throat, quickly changing into deep heaves. Tears rolled slowly down her dirty cheeks as she retched painfully and deeply over and over again, too weak to roll out of the way. Her fingers clenched spasmodically into the dirt; she was free.
"Well, what do you know," Jesse stared up at a gray building that was faintly visible through the trees. He had lost track of how long they had been walking, and he was shocked that Brennan had somehow led them to a place that was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. He ran to catch up as Brennan zapped the locked door and wrenched it open, disappearing inside.
The sound of approaching footsteps alarmed Shalimar, and she moaned in distress as she scooted herself back against the wall, chest heaving with pain.
"Shalimar!"
The sound of her name being called was the sweetest thing she had ever heard, and she sobbed in relief, pushing herself weakly into a sitting position. She would recognize that voice anywhere, and she longed to see his face again. She opened her mouth to call out, when a shuffle to her left caught her attention. Her eyes widened in disbelief as a figure stepped out of the shadows; she suddenly remembered. She cursed her weakness as she was unable to get away from him as he approached and clamped his hand over her mouth, but her eyes blazed back at him with burning anger as he dragged her away.
Brennan swore he could smell her as he ran down the hallways of the seemingly deserted building he had been directed towards. By now he had given up all pretense of a covert entry and was hollering her name as he ran along, stopping only to check into the occasional doorways he passed. A faint scuffle from behind registered in his ears, and he heard the conjoined voices of Jesse and Lexa, but he didn't bother going back; whatever they had run into they could handle. Instead, he continued his search. He paused at a steel door with a small glass window and peered in, catching his breath at what he saw inside. He yanked the door open and stopped in silent horror. Shalimar. She had been here, he was sure of it. The room was reinforced with filthy brick walls and cement floor; remnants of chains hung from the ceiling and their remains were littered across the floor, cuffs wrenched open, surrounded by drops of blood and large dark stains that had soaked into the ground. He slowly knelt down by the open cuffs and peered at the blood spots; they were still fresh. He shuddered as he saw two strands of silky blond hair tangled amongst the wreckage. The dark spots drew Brennan's nose with their faint pungent smell, and he realized she had been sick. She hated being sick.
"Oh, Shal," his heart broke. He stood up, eyes raking across the scene, narrowing as he understood what she had been through. Another door leading out of the room was open, and he instinctively went through it, on the hunt, just as she had taught him.
"Lexa!" Jesse called in fear as he saw her go down out of the corner of his eye. He dunked at the fist flying his way and then threw a counter punch, massing his fist at the last moment, knocking the figure out cold. He turned on his heel and started toward Lexa, even as she raised her hands and sent a powerful arch towards the second man.
"Well," she cleared her throat, pushing herself off the floor, "that came out of nowhere."
Jesse shook his head, "We can thank Brennan's hollering for that." He bent over one of the sprawling figures and patted it down, looking for clues to their identity. "Nothing."
"If they're working with Dominque, I'm not surprised," Lexa commented.
Jesse raised his eyebrows in question.
"Let's just say I've had more than one occasion to experience them first-hand," Lexa explained cryptically. "Let's go," she changed the subject as they continued down the hallway after Brennan.
Brennan paused in surprise when he turned down a side hallway and entered what looked like a fully functional medical center, albeit a deserted one. "Maybe they are stabilizing mutants after all," Brennan murmured to himself as he wandered down the hall, taking stock of the equipment strewn around the hall. His stomach dropped as his eyes fell on an all too familiar object, a subdermal governor.
"If they're using governors here, they must have used one on Shalimar, they wouldn't have been able to hold her otherwise," he grimly thought as he walked towards the first open doorway, stopping short at what he saw inside.
"So do you really think she's here?" Lexa asked Jesse as they paused to peer in an empty room.
"I'm not sure what to think right now," Jesse admitted. "We can't pick up her comlink, we have no clue where she is," he poked his head in the next room before continuing, "and yet here we are."
"I'm still not sure how Brennan found this place, but that information he got seemed pretty damn accurate," Lexa mused.
Jesse nodded in agreement as he pulled Lexa down a new hallway, continuing their search. They finally found Brennan standing still in a doorway. Confused, they came up behind him, peering over his shoulder.
"Brennan?" Jesse inquired.
Wordlessly, Brennan pointed towards the back of the room. A lab had been set up inside, medical equipment scattered throughout. An empty bed was mused, as if its occupant had been there recently. But what held Brennan's attention was the gurney, and the figure lying motionless under a bloodstained sheet.
Jesse swallowed hard as Brennan's knees gave out and he sank to the floor.
Matted curls of blonde hair stuck out from the end of the sheet, its shiny brilliance in sharp contrast to the gruesome signs of death.