Blood Price - Chapter Four
Adam hadn't moved in the last six hours.
When they'd first returned to the Sanctuary Emma's condition had been critical, and it hadn't changed since. He'd done everything he could; run every test simulation to try and help her but even he had been forced to admit defeat. There was nothing Adam could do to help her, this fight was entirely in Emma's hands. So he sat by her side, watching, waiting for her to wake up, fearing that she may never wake up at all.
Time and again the three friends tried to convince Adam to take a moment away from her side, to eat or drink something; he refused. And there, by Emma's side, he had sat for the last six hours. It wasn't until the seventh hour that his patience was rewarded. Curling her fingers in reflex Emma slowly began to stir. Blinking, trying to focus her eyes, she slowly opened them to see Adam standing over her, looking down, his face filled with concern.
"How do you feel?" he asked softly.
"My head hurts," she whispered.
He smiled. "I'll bet it does." Turning away from her for a moment Adam reached for a syringe on the table. "This will help the pain, but it won't get rid of it I'm afraid." Injecting her with the medicine Emma could feel the pain subsiding. "What do you remember?" he asked of her.
She glanced around the room nervously. "Not much really. Nightmares mostly."
Leaning against the chair he stared down at her. "What kind of nightmares?"
Emma could still picture them in her head, Adam leaving her at Genomex, walking away from her in the park, stabbing her with his lips still pressed to hers. Against her will tears began to fall from her eyes, silent drops of pain that was still so fresh in her mind. Shaking her head she couldn't bring herself to say it. Seeing the tears Adam grew concerned and reached out to take her hand but Emma shrank away from him, cringing.
"Please don't," she whispered, her voice filled with pain and fear. "Please don't touch me."
Hurt, confused, Adam withdrew his hand. She began to sob, covering her face with her hands and rolling away from Adam, curling herself into a fetal position. In the doorway Adam saw the three friends watching, their eyes filled with concern at the sight of Emma. As one they moved forward, surrounding her chair, trying to help. Sensing them she opened her eyes and they grew wide in fear when she saw the team standing around her.
Her mind replaying her nightmares Emma lashed out, running from the lab before they could recover. Worried the team ran after her, each one calling to her as they searched the sanctuary. There were only so many places she could go and they were going to search them all. Her mind yelling at her to trust her friends her heart cried at the thought of being near them as it remembered the visions from her nightmares.
Hunched down in the corner of a small closet, her hiding place for the last few hours, Emma shook when she heard the footsteps in the hallway. They stopped and a few moments later the door opened softly, slowly. A man she had never seen before squatted down to meet her at eye level. His long gray hair made him look like a man trying desperately to recapture his youth. Not saying a word he held his hand out to her, his eyes kind and his smile easy. Waiting as long as she needed Jack's smile grew when she took his hand and emerged from the closet. Her hand in his they walked out to the water garden and sat down on the wooden block.
"My name is Jack," he said softly.
"I'm Emma," she whispered after a few moments.
"I know," he grinned. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face. I've been reading you for so long I feel like I know you already."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm a telepath. But I have honed my skills so that I can read people even at a very long distance. When you were taken to the GSA Adam asked me to make sure you were okay. I know that you were in pain and I know that they did something to you to make you become one of them." From the corner of his eyes Jack saw the four team members watching, listening. "I also know about your nightmares, Emma."
Emma glanced up at him in surprise. "You didn't tell Adam did you?" she worried.
"Do you not want me to?" Jack asked, evading the question.
"He can't know," she cried, worried that he had told Adam already. "He'd get so mad! Please, you can't tell him."
"I won't tell Adam if you promise to tell me, right now, about your nightmares."
"But you said you already knew."
"I do know. But the nightmares aren't really nightmares, Emma." Jack could see the confusion on her face and explained. "Up here, in your mind, you know that Adam and your friends would never hurt you. But here, in your heart, you can still feel the fear and the pain of what you remember in your nightmares. When Eckhart had you at the GSA he programmed your mind with a system he developed several years back. Like watching a movie, you saw everything happen, you saw what Eckhart programmed you to see and remember so that when the time came he could train you to work for him and to trust him."
"You mean like brainwashing?"
"More complex than that, but essentially yes. When you were programmed all the good memories of your life here were blocked. But when you saw Adam they began t resurface and that was what caused you to black out. Even now you can still remember both, can't you?" Emma nodded. "The good things you remember as being truth but the bad things you remember like a dream. We need to figure out what they are so that you can recognize them as programming and not nightmares. That way you can hate the person who's responsible for them, not the one who stars in them."
Taking a deep, shuddering breath Emma looked at Jack. "How?"
"By letting Adam help us. He has a machine that will portray whatever your thinking. If the memory is a true one then the machine will blink the green light. If it's a false memory, one that was programmed into your mind, the machine will flash a red light. That way you can see everything and know which one is real and which one is fake. Will you let Adam help us?"
Looking down Emma couldn't decide, her heart saying one thing, her head another. From the corner of her eye she saw Adam approach and stop several feet away from her. Looking up she met his sad brown eyes and Emma couldn't look away. "Let me help you Emma."
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting in the chair Emma stared at the wires that were hanging from her head and chest. Before her a blank holoscreen hung in the air waiting for the first memory to be called up. Looking off to one side she saw Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan waiting, watching her, hoping that this would work.
"All right," Jack said from his seat next to Emma. "Why don't we start with a good memory, something you good remember about Adam."
Instantly the holoscreen flashed to life and they all saw Emma sitting by the water garden, Adam next to her, holding her hand. "I remember that. It was just after I'd been split in two." On the machine the green light came on confirming that it was a real memory. "We sat there for a minute and then he walked away."
Her words sparked another memory and the holoscreen flashed up a new image. Emma and Shalimar were fighting. Emma called up every tactic she could think of to get away, all the while trying to calm Shalimar down. 'Shalimar, come on, it's me, Emma! I don't want to fight you!' she cried to her friend.
'Then you shouldn't have left Mutant X!' Shalimar growled back, landing a punch to Emma's jaw. Falling to the ground the last thing she saw was Adam, walking away from her, calling his team to come with him. He was leaving.
The light on the display panel flashed red and Emma looked to Jack. "It's not a true memory, Kiddo. That's one of the programmed ones Eckhart planted in your mind. You never fought Shalimar, they never left you lying in the park."
Turning he head Emma looked over her shoulder to see Shalimar staring back at her with wide eyes. "Emma I would never..." she said, not knowing how to continue her thoughts.
Smiling weakly at her Emma turned back to face the screen. Shalimar's words had sparked up another memory and it played itself out on the screen. The four friends were standing on a street corner, the night sky ablaze with neon lights, laughing and joking with each other as they walked towards their ride back to the Sanctuary. The display flashed green and Emma smiled. She remembered that one too.
"All right, Emma, lets get back to work on the programmed memories. Can you remember another bad one?"
All six people watched as Adam stormed into a lab, toward Emma who was sitting at the desk working. 'Are you done yet?' he mocked. 'I could have had this done three hours ago.'
'I'm sorry, Adam, I'm working as fast as I can,' Emma began. Adam slammed his fist down onto the table and Emma jumped in her skin.
'Well that's not good enough you little freak! Get the hell out of my lab!'
Through teary eyes Emma watched as the display flashed red. It was false, that had never happened. Looking first to Jack to confirm it she looked at Adam after Jack had nodded. His deep brown eyes were a mixture of disbelief, pain, and sadness as he stared at the final image on the display. Glancing at Emma he didn't know what to say. "I..." Adam was at a loss for words but his silence, his shock, was enough for Emma. He hadn't done it; he hadn't mocked her, yelled at her. But what about...
Another image flashed up on the screen and they all watched as Emma's memories played themselves out in a rapid succession, one after another, the beating, the yelling, the anger, and the pain. As the last one hung in the air tears were streaming from Emma's eyes. Each one had flashed up red. They were all fake, each and every one of them. Her heart was lifted at the thought that the nightmares were not true, that Adam had never hurt her, never tried to kill her. Turning in her seat Emma looked to where Adam had been standing but he was gone. She saw his fleeing back as he left the main room, shoulder hunched under the pain of everything he had just witnessed.
Disconnecting the wires Emma went in search of him, she knew exactly where he would go. Down the hallways, around corners, Emma wandered until she came to the skylight of the Sanctuary. At the very top of their hidden home you could see the stars shining down through a large skylight in the roof. There, on the bench seat at one end of the room, sat Adam, his head in his hands as he bent over, trying to deal with everything he had just witnessed. Silently she padded over to his side, sitting down a little ways away from him. Lifting his head too look at her Emma was shocked to see the tear resting on his dark lashes.
"Emma, I..."
Adam stopped. He didn't know where to begin or how to apologize for the hell that Eckhart had forced onto her brain. He had witnessed Emma being beaten by his own hands, the tears in her eyes as he had berated her over the littlest thing. But most of all, every time he closed his eyes, he saw her, lying on the ground, bleeding from a knife he himself had put into her side.
Taking his hand in hers Emma gently leaned her head on his shoulder. Neither of them said a word, just sitting side by side for some time. Finally Emma spoke, her eyes staring up at the stars above.
"He knew that I loved you and he used it against me. He wanted me to trust him instead of you. But in the end he couldn't. I forgot you for a little while but when I remembered who you were there wasn't anything that could stop the memories from surfacing. When I walked out between you that day I was trying to get to you, Adam. I was trying to get away from Eckhart and get to you. Even with all the nightmares that I remembered I knew you were the one that would help me."
They fell into silence again but Adam's heart had been lifted. She was beginning to trust him again, to see past the hell that Mason Eckhart had put her through.
"Adam," she whispered.
Turning his head Adam looked at Emma as she stared up through the skylight at the stars. "Yes?"
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"How do you live with the guilt of knowing that you've done some terrible things to innocent people?"
Adam closed his eyes. He knew exactly what she was talking about. Emma had been a GSA Agent; she'd done things to other New Mutants that would haunt her for the rest of her life. While Adam didn't know the full extent or the details of everything he knew the kind of work Mason would have made her do and he knew that Emma's conscious would never be able to live with the guilt of the thing she had done while under Eckhart's control.
"By doing everything you can to make it right again. By living each day doing as much as you can to make the world a better place for everyone. And by always remembering that you had no control over what happened while you were programmed."
Pulling her legs under her Emma leaned against Adam as she stared out the skylight. Putting his one arm around her Adam held her tight, his mind drifting back to the painting from the gallery. Emma's innocence had been ripped away by Eckhart's programming. The storm clouds had rolled in over her beautiful day, bringing the blackness of guilt and pain with it. But there was always a silver lining to every cloud. Sitting there, with Emma in his arms, Adam knew she would find hers soon enough.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting up in her bed, trying to catch up on the missed months in her diary, Emma looked up when a knock resounded on her door. Bidding the person on the other side to come in she smiled when Adam entered, telling her to close her eyes. Curious she did as he asked. While her eyes were closed she felt Adam join her on the bed and put his arm around her waist. "Open them," he whispered to her.
Opening her eyes Emma was shocked to see the painting that was set on the desk, a picture perfect little girl in a white dress, leaning against the wall. "How did you get it?" she breathed, looking up into Adam's deep brown eyes.
"A little bird told me it might be for sale so I bought it. This way you can always have a piece of your family close by."
The look on Emma's face was worth every penny Adam had spent on acquiring the painting; the finagling that had gone on between himself and the dealer. She looked back to the painting; her eyes wide open in delight and wonder at the gift that Adam had given her. Turning back to the man sitting by her side Emma smiled at him. "Thank you Adam," she whispered.
Turning his face from the painting to look at Emma Adam's face was mere inches from hers, so close he could feel her breath hitting his face, the smell of her perfume titillating his nose. It was all Adam could do to not close the distance between them, covering her lips with his. But he held back, not wanting to press her until she was ready. It had been a month since she had returned to the Sanctuary, a month since he had learned the hell Eckhart had put her through. There were still nights when she would wake, screaming from the nightmares that played out in her head. And more than once he had found her roaming the hallways unable, unwilling, to sleep.
When he found her they would always talk, never about work or the GSA, but about everything else. Slowly, little by little, Adam had warmed her heart to him again, proving over time that she could trust him, proving it time and again until her heart said the same thing as her mind. And now, sitting in her room, side by side with him, Emma knew that both her heart and her mind were of one decision again. Knowing he would not, Emma closed the distance between them, laying claim to Adam's lips as she had in his mind so long ago. Raising her hand Emma lost her fingers in his soft locks.
Closing his eyes Adam lost his hands in her hair, pulling her to him with a passion that had been smoldering over all the months she had been gone from his life. As they lay back on her bed he crushed her beneath him, lost in the feel of her hands in his hair. Pulling back for a moment Adam stared down at her, the fragile young woman who was beneath him. He needed to be sure, for her to be sure that this was what she wanted, that she was ready. What he saw in her eyes was more than enough for him.
Together Adam and Emma fell into each other, lost in the love that had been denied its chance for too long.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
"Has anyone seen Emma?"
Jesse looked up from his console to see Adam standing at the top of the stairs looking down at them. From their training on the platform Shalimar and Brennan looked across, all three shaking their head no. "Last I heard she was going to go for a spin in the Double Helix," Brennan supplied.
Frowning Adam called out to Emma. "Emma, where are you?"
"I'm in the Double Helix, Adam," she replied.
"Where are you going?" he asked her.
Emma concentrated she checked the console. "I have to go buy something back from the devil." Cutting the comm link she smiled as she landed the Double Helix, cloaking it from view. Emerging she walked up to the front door of the large complex. Using her mutancy Emma sailed right past the guards as they shut down the security system. As she passed each checkpoint Emma blinded the men to who she really was. Once she reached her destination Emma entered the office, locking the door behind her. In silence she stood before the man sitting behind the large desk.
"Agent DeLauro," Eckhart said with a small amount of surprise. "I'm shocked you were able to get away from the rebels.
Emma stared at him for another moment before she slowly made her way to the desks edge. "I'd prefer it if you'd go back to calling me Ms. DeLauro. I never liked the sound of Agent DeLauro." Seeing him reach for his security button Emma smiled. "Go ahead, press it. No one will come."
Coolly Mason sat back in his chair and folded his hands. "And just what is it that you want?"
Emma leaned down on the desk, peering into his cold eyes. "I came to warn you." Eckhart raised his eyebrow, the only sign of surprise in his cool mask of indifference. "If you ever try to hurt my sister again, I'll kill you. Don't think that I won't. You saw firsthand that I can go the distance on my threats." Turning to walk away Emma stopped and turned back to face him one more time. "And one more thing," she said as she walked up to his side and pressed the security button on his computer. From the other side of the door they both heard the pounding of running feet heading towards the office. Emma pulled Eckhart up to his feet and away from the desk. "I suggest you don't try to come between me and Adam again... or I'll make your life a living hell."
The door hissed open and guards flooded the room, weapons drawn. With one look Emma used her mutancy to convince them all that she was Eckhart and the he was she. Tossing him to the guards she ordered them to take the Emma they saw in their minds to a holding cell until further instructions. Once they were gone she slipped out the door and back to the Double Helix. Sitting behind the controls she set her destination and leaned back in the chair.
It was time to go home.
The End
Adam hadn't moved in the last six hours.
When they'd first returned to the Sanctuary Emma's condition had been critical, and it hadn't changed since. He'd done everything he could; run every test simulation to try and help her but even he had been forced to admit defeat. There was nothing Adam could do to help her, this fight was entirely in Emma's hands. So he sat by her side, watching, waiting for her to wake up, fearing that she may never wake up at all.
Time and again the three friends tried to convince Adam to take a moment away from her side, to eat or drink something; he refused. And there, by Emma's side, he had sat for the last six hours. It wasn't until the seventh hour that his patience was rewarded. Curling her fingers in reflex Emma slowly began to stir. Blinking, trying to focus her eyes, she slowly opened them to see Adam standing over her, looking down, his face filled with concern.
"How do you feel?" he asked softly.
"My head hurts," she whispered.
He smiled. "I'll bet it does." Turning away from her for a moment Adam reached for a syringe on the table. "This will help the pain, but it won't get rid of it I'm afraid." Injecting her with the medicine Emma could feel the pain subsiding. "What do you remember?" he asked of her.
She glanced around the room nervously. "Not much really. Nightmares mostly."
Leaning against the chair he stared down at her. "What kind of nightmares?"
Emma could still picture them in her head, Adam leaving her at Genomex, walking away from her in the park, stabbing her with his lips still pressed to hers. Against her will tears began to fall from her eyes, silent drops of pain that was still so fresh in her mind. Shaking her head she couldn't bring herself to say it. Seeing the tears Adam grew concerned and reached out to take her hand but Emma shrank away from him, cringing.
"Please don't," she whispered, her voice filled with pain and fear. "Please don't touch me."
Hurt, confused, Adam withdrew his hand. She began to sob, covering her face with her hands and rolling away from Adam, curling herself into a fetal position. In the doorway Adam saw the three friends watching, their eyes filled with concern at the sight of Emma. As one they moved forward, surrounding her chair, trying to help. Sensing them she opened her eyes and they grew wide in fear when she saw the team standing around her.
Her mind replaying her nightmares Emma lashed out, running from the lab before they could recover. Worried the team ran after her, each one calling to her as they searched the sanctuary. There were only so many places she could go and they were going to search them all. Her mind yelling at her to trust her friends her heart cried at the thought of being near them as it remembered the visions from her nightmares.
Hunched down in the corner of a small closet, her hiding place for the last few hours, Emma shook when she heard the footsteps in the hallway. They stopped and a few moments later the door opened softly, slowly. A man she had never seen before squatted down to meet her at eye level. His long gray hair made him look like a man trying desperately to recapture his youth. Not saying a word he held his hand out to her, his eyes kind and his smile easy. Waiting as long as she needed Jack's smile grew when she took his hand and emerged from the closet. Her hand in his they walked out to the water garden and sat down on the wooden block.
"My name is Jack," he said softly.
"I'm Emma," she whispered after a few moments.
"I know," he grinned. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face. I've been reading you for so long I feel like I know you already."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm a telepath. But I have honed my skills so that I can read people even at a very long distance. When you were taken to the GSA Adam asked me to make sure you were okay. I know that you were in pain and I know that they did something to you to make you become one of them." From the corner of his eyes Jack saw the four team members watching, listening. "I also know about your nightmares, Emma."
Emma glanced up at him in surprise. "You didn't tell Adam did you?" she worried.
"Do you not want me to?" Jack asked, evading the question.
"He can't know," she cried, worried that he had told Adam already. "He'd get so mad! Please, you can't tell him."
"I won't tell Adam if you promise to tell me, right now, about your nightmares."
"But you said you already knew."
"I do know. But the nightmares aren't really nightmares, Emma." Jack could see the confusion on her face and explained. "Up here, in your mind, you know that Adam and your friends would never hurt you. But here, in your heart, you can still feel the fear and the pain of what you remember in your nightmares. When Eckhart had you at the GSA he programmed your mind with a system he developed several years back. Like watching a movie, you saw everything happen, you saw what Eckhart programmed you to see and remember so that when the time came he could train you to work for him and to trust him."
"You mean like brainwashing?"
"More complex than that, but essentially yes. When you were programmed all the good memories of your life here were blocked. But when you saw Adam they began t resurface and that was what caused you to black out. Even now you can still remember both, can't you?" Emma nodded. "The good things you remember as being truth but the bad things you remember like a dream. We need to figure out what they are so that you can recognize them as programming and not nightmares. That way you can hate the person who's responsible for them, not the one who stars in them."
Taking a deep, shuddering breath Emma looked at Jack. "How?"
"By letting Adam help us. He has a machine that will portray whatever your thinking. If the memory is a true one then the machine will blink the green light. If it's a false memory, one that was programmed into your mind, the machine will flash a red light. That way you can see everything and know which one is real and which one is fake. Will you let Adam help us?"
Looking down Emma couldn't decide, her heart saying one thing, her head another. From the corner of her eye she saw Adam approach and stop several feet away from her. Looking up she met his sad brown eyes and Emma couldn't look away. "Let me help you Emma."
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting in the chair Emma stared at the wires that were hanging from her head and chest. Before her a blank holoscreen hung in the air waiting for the first memory to be called up. Looking off to one side she saw Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan waiting, watching her, hoping that this would work.
"All right," Jack said from his seat next to Emma. "Why don't we start with a good memory, something you good remember about Adam."
Instantly the holoscreen flashed to life and they all saw Emma sitting by the water garden, Adam next to her, holding her hand. "I remember that. It was just after I'd been split in two." On the machine the green light came on confirming that it was a real memory. "We sat there for a minute and then he walked away."
Her words sparked another memory and the holoscreen flashed up a new image. Emma and Shalimar were fighting. Emma called up every tactic she could think of to get away, all the while trying to calm Shalimar down. 'Shalimar, come on, it's me, Emma! I don't want to fight you!' she cried to her friend.
'Then you shouldn't have left Mutant X!' Shalimar growled back, landing a punch to Emma's jaw. Falling to the ground the last thing she saw was Adam, walking away from her, calling his team to come with him. He was leaving.
The light on the display panel flashed red and Emma looked to Jack. "It's not a true memory, Kiddo. That's one of the programmed ones Eckhart planted in your mind. You never fought Shalimar, they never left you lying in the park."
Turning he head Emma looked over her shoulder to see Shalimar staring back at her with wide eyes. "Emma I would never..." she said, not knowing how to continue her thoughts.
Smiling weakly at her Emma turned back to face the screen. Shalimar's words had sparked up another memory and it played itself out on the screen. The four friends were standing on a street corner, the night sky ablaze with neon lights, laughing and joking with each other as they walked towards their ride back to the Sanctuary. The display flashed green and Emma smiled. She remembered that one too.
"All right, Emma, lets get back to work on the programmed memories. Can you remember another bad one?"
All six people watched as Adam stormed into a lab, toward Emma who was sitting at the desk working. 'Are you done yet?' he mocked. 'I could have had this done three hours ago.'
'I'm sorry, Adam, I'm working as fast as I can,' Emma began. Adam slammed his fist down onto the table and Emma jumped in her skin.
'Well that's not good enough you little freak! Get the hell out of my lab!'
Through teary eyes Emma watched as the display flashed red. It was false, that had never happened. Looking first to Jack to confirm it she looked at Adam after Jack had nodded. His deep brown eyes were a mixture of disbelief, pain, and sadness as he stared at the final image on the display. Glancing at Emma he didn't know what to say. "I..." Adam was at a loss for words but his silence, his shock, was enough for Emma. He hadn't done it; he hadn't mocked her, yelled at her. But what about...
Another image flashed up on the screen and they all watched as Emma's memories played themselves out in a rapid succession, one after another, the beating, the yelling, the anger, and the pain. As the last one hung in the air tears were streaming from Emma's eyes. Each one had flashed up red. They were all fake, each and every one of them. Her heart was lifted at the thought that the nightmares were not true, that Adam had never hurt her, never tried to kill her. Turning in her seat Emma looked to where Adam had been standing but he was gone. She saw his fleeing back as he left the main room, shoulder hunched under the pain of everything he had just witnessed.
Disconnecting the wires Emma went in search of him, she knew exactly where he would go. Down the hallways, around corners, Emma wandered until she came to the skylight of the Sanctuary. At the very top of their hidden home you could see the stars shining down through a large skylight in the roof. There, on the bench seat at one end of the room, sat Adam, his head in his hands as he bent over, trying to deal with everything he had just witnessed. Silently she padded over to his side, sitting down a little ways away from him. Lifting his head too look at her Emma was shocked to see the tear resting on his dark lashes.
"Emma, I..."
Adam stopped. He didn't know where to begin or how to apologize for the hell that Eckhart had forced onto her brain. He had witnessed Emma being beaten by his own hands, the tears in her eyes as he had berated her over the littlest thing. But most of all, every time he closed his eyes, he saw her, lying on the ground, bleeding from a knife he himself had put into her side.
Taking his hand in hers Emma gently leaned her head on his shoulder. Neither of them said a word, just sitting side by side for some time. Finally Emma spoke, her eyes staring up at the stars above.
"He knew that I loved you and he used it against me. He wanted me to trust him instead of you. But in the end he couldn't. I forgot you for a little while but when I remembered who you were there wasn't anything that could stop the memories from surfacing. When I walked out between you that day I was trying to get to you, Adam. I was trying to get away from Eckhart and get to you. Even with all the nightmares that I remembered I knew you were the one that would help me."
They fell into silence again but Adam's heart had been lifted. She was beginning to trust him again, to see past the hell that Mason Eckhart had put her through.
"Adam," she whispered.
Turning his head Adam looked at Emma as she stared up through the skylight at the stars. "Yes?"
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"How do you live with the guilt of knowing that you've done some terrible things to innocent people?"
Adam closed his eyes. He knew exactly what she was talking about. Emma had been a GSA Agent; she'd done things to other New Mutants that would haunt her for the rest of her life. While Adam didn't know the full extent or the details of everything he knew the kind of work Mason would have made her do and he knew that Emma's conscious would never be able to live with the guilt of the thing she had done while under Eckhart's control.
"By doing everything you can to make it right again. By living each day doing as much as you can to make the world a better place for everyone. And by always remembering that you had no control over what happened while you were programmed."
Pulling her legs under her Emma leaned against Adam as she stared out the skylight. Putting his one arm around her Adam held her tight, his mind drifting back to the painting from the gallery. Emma's innocence had been ripped away by Eckhart's programming. The storm clouds had rolled in over her beautiful day, bringing the blackness of guilt and pain with it. But there was always a silver lining to every cloud. Sitting there, with Emma in his arms, Adam knew she would find hers soon enough.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
Sitting up in her bed, trying to catch up on the missed months in her diary, Emma looked up when a knock resounded on her door. Bidding the person on the other side to come in she smiled when Adam entered, telling her to close her eyes. Curious she did as he asked. While her eyes were closed she felt Adam join her on the bed and put his arm around her waist. "Open them," he whispered to her.
Opening her eyes Emma was shocked to see the painting that was set on the desk, a picture perfect little girl in a white dress, leaning against the wall. "How did you get it?" she breathed, looking up into Adam's deep brown eyes.
"A little bird told me it might be for sale so I bought it. This way you can always have a piece of your family close by."
The look on Emma's face was worth every penny Adam had spent on acquiring the painting; the finagling that had gone on between himself and the dealer. She looked back to the painting; her eyes wide open in delight and wonder at the gift that Adam had given her. Turning back to the man sitting by her side Emma smiled at him. "Thank you Adam," she whispered.
Turning his face from the painting to look at Emma Adam's face was mere inches from hers, so close he could feel her breath hitting his face, the smell of her perfume titillating his nose. It was all Adam could do to not close the distance between them, covering her lips with his. But he held back, not wanting to press her until she was ready. It had been a month since she had returned to the Sanctuary, a month since he had learned the hell Eckhart had put her through. There were still nights when she would wake, screaming from the nightmares that played out in her head. And more than once he had found her roaming the hallways unable, unwilling, to sleep.
When he found her they would always talk, never about work or the GSA, but about everything else. Slowly, little by little, Adam had warmed her heart to him again, proving over time that she could trust him, proving it time and again until her heart said the same thing as her mind. And now, sitting in her room, side by side with him, Emma knew that both her heart and her mind were of one decision again. Knowing he would not, Emma closed the distance between them, laying claim to Adam's lips as she had in his mind so long ago. Raising her hand Emma lost her fingers in his soft locks.
Closing his eyes Adam lost his hands in her hair, pulling her to him with a passion that had been smoldering over all the months she had been gone from his life. As they lay back on her bed he crushed her beneath him, lost in the feel of her hands in his hair. Pulling back for a moment Adam stared down at her, the fragile young woman who was beneath him. He needed to be sure, for her to be sure that this was what she wanted, that she was ready. What he saw in her eyes was more than enough for him.
Together Adam and Emma fell into each other, lost in the love that had been denied its chance for too long.
X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X
"Has anyone seen Emma?"
Jesse looked up from his console to see Adam standing at the top of the stairs looking down at them. From their training on the platform Shalimar and Brennan looked across, all three shaking their head no. "Last I heard she was going to go for a spin in the Double Helix," Brennan supplied.
Frowning Adam called out to Emma. "Emma, where are you?"
"I'm in the Double Helix, Adam," she replied.
"Where are you going?" he asked her.
Emma concentrated she checked the console. "I have to go buy something back from the devil." Cutting the comm link she smiled as she landed the Double Helix, cloaking it from view. Emerging she walked up to the front door of the large complex. Using her mutancy Emma sailed right past the guards as they shut down the security system. As she passed each checkpoint Emma blinded the men to who she really was. Once she reached her destination Emma entered the office, locking the door behind her. In silence she stood before the man sitting behind the large desk.
"Agent DeLauro," Eckhart said with a small amount of surprise. "I'm shocked you were able to get away from the rebels.
Emma stared at him for another moment before she slowly made her way to the desks edge. "I'd prefer it if you'd go back to calling me Ms. DeLauro. I never liked the sound of Agent DeLauro." Seeing him reach for his security button Emma smiled. "Go ahead, press it. No one will come."
Coolly Mason sat back in his chair and folded his hands. "And just what is it that you want?"
Emma leaned down on the desk, peering into his cold eyes. "I came to warn you." Eckhart raised his eyebrow, the only sign of surprise in his cool mask of indifference. "If you ever try to hurt my sister again, I'll kill you. Don't think that I won't. You saw firsthand that I can go the distance on my threats." Turning to walk away Emma stopped and turned back to face him one more time. "And one more thing," she said as she walked up to his side and pressed the security button on his computer. From the other side of the door they both heard the pounding of running feet heading towards the office. Emma pulled Eckhart up to his feet and away from the desk. "I suggest you don't try to come between me and Adam again... or I'll make your life a living hell."
The door hissed open and guards flooded the room, weapons drawn. With one look Emma used her mutancy to convince them all that she was Eckhart and the he was she. Tossing him to the guards she ordered them to take the Emma they saw in their minds to a holding cell until further instructions. Once they were gone she slipped out the door and back to the Double Helix. Sitting behind the controls she set her destination and leaned back in the chair.
It was time to go home.
The End