Shalimar woke up and found herself back at the sanctuary, tucked into her own bed. She could hear the steady beep of a heart monitor beside her bed and looking down at her arms she could see various tubes coming out of them. But she was happy to be home.

Adam entered the room, smiling as he made his way to her side. "Hi."

"Hi," she weakly replied.

"You've definitely got nine lives, my feral friend."

She laughed but then grimaced in pain.

Adam placed his hand gently over her wound, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you laugh. You better take it easy." He sat down in the chair next to her bed. "So, what happened?"

"I went out to eat and then decided to walk back to the hotel because it was so beautiful outside. I stopped at the carnival to play a few games." Shalimar grinned, "I won this great bear. He was huge, and cuddly. Anyway, I was just walking around and I heard people screaming. I looked up and then it was as if the whole world stood still. I was frozen. Then I realized I'd been shot. I don't remember much after that."

"Well, we took your doctor friend into custody and it seems he makes a handsome living selling new mutants to the highest bidder. He's not even a doctor at the hospital. He heard you were brought to the hospital which means he must have people on the inside that work for him. We're trying to find out who he was selling them to but he's not giving up any names just yet."

"Eckhart?"

"I doubt it. Eckhart would rather capture them himself. We'll find out in time. We just need to work on the doctor some more." Adam smiled slyly at her. "I've got something for you."

"What?"

Adam left the room and then came back with her carnival bear in his hands.

"My bear!"

"The nurse at the hospital said you were adamant that they not throw it away." Adam placed the bear beside her.

Shalimar looked the bear over and immediately noticed the bullet hole in the bear's stomach and back. "Well, bear, looks like we've got something in common."

"I can have Emma fix that for you," he suggested.

"No, it's okay like this."

"Okay, if that's what you want. I just don't want it to bring up bad memories for you is all."

Shalimar looked up at Adam, "Thanks for looking out for me."

Adam smiled at her and looked at the bear, "He is awful cute."

In the containment area Brennan and Jesse were having fun with the doctor, trying to get him to talk. The man remained silent as he sat in the corner of the room.

"Forget it, man. Don't waste any more of your energy. He's not going to talk. We'll come back later." Jesse grabbed Brennan's arm and dragged him out of the room.

The doctor pulled his legs up to his chest and began to rock back and forth. He reached inside his shoe and pulled out a needle. He jammed it into his arm and within moments his whole body went limp. He fell over onto the floor, dead.

THE END