by Drucilla
Author's Note: It's a bit premature, but I'm considering two sequels (at least) for this story... one involving an amnesiac Eckhart as a way of sort of exploring what might have been, and one involving something that forces Angelique to use her biokinetic powers to send Eckhart's condition into remission for a time, but at the cost of her life. I'm not sure which one I'll write, I may write both, or neither or some combination of the two, or something completely different. Feedback is appreciated. It's almost over! Thank you all for reading and reviewing. :)
Adam looked around as he entered the foyer of the huge house. He still had trouble believing that one woman, especially Angelique, lived here all alone. It was a huge place with eight bedrooms and far more auxiliary areas than he could ever remember seeing in a house. Some of the rooms looked like the type Victorian or roaring 20s era women wound entertain guests in, with huge windows and a screen door that led out onto the porch. Others were small, cozy, especially the television room. The library had bookshelves that reached ten feet to the ceiling and a huge window with a ledge that was clearly intended for lounging on. It was elegant, huge and cozy at the same time, and somehow utterly Angelique.
"Hello?" Adam called into the echoing emptiness of the house. When she'd phoned him yesterday she'd said they would be here, but she'd neglected to mention that 'here' could be anywhere on the 65 acre property. He wandered through the dining area and kitchen again, wondering where everyone was.
Shalimar was standing in the TV room when he passed the open door, looking tense. He would have sworn she hadn't been there the last time he walked by, but that wasn't unusual for the feral. He went over to her, concerned. "What's wrong?"
Shalimar looked at Adam measuringly, as if she wasn't sure to speak to him about what was on her mind or not. After a short while she asked him something that rocked him back on his heels. "Why is Angelique in love with Eckhart?"
"Guh…" Adam replied eloquently. His brain stalled out, then slowly shifted back up into first gear. "What makes you think she is?"
Shalimar gave Adam a 'don't be dense' look. "She talks about him… not like an old friend, but like someone special. She keeps more keepsakes from him than from anyone else, things you wouldn't normally keep unless it was someone close to you. I think she idolizes him, or something. It's not healthy; she doesn't think he … I don't know. She thinks he can do no wrong."
Adam frowned. "That doesn't sound like the Angelique I knew even fourteen years ago. What makes you say that?"
Shalimar recounted to him the conversations they'd had the past night. Adam leaned against the wall halfway through, trying to sift out what was Shalimar's bias from what appeared to be an instant dislike of the woman and what had actually been said. From what she was saying it sounded like Angelique was discussing some heavy topics with them… but things Adam himself should have brought up long before, and hadn't had time or concentration enough to. He sighed. She was right, he was going about this somewhat rashly. But it was so hard to concentrate on philosophical issues when you were keeping a motley lot of young men and women from being destroyed by a world that feared their existence.
"She does have a point, Shalimar," Adam said finally, after a long silence. "I haven't been as forthcoming with you as I should have. Frankly, we haven't had time to breathe, much less talk. But she is right, and I'm glad she spoke with all of you about what and when she did."
Shalimar frowned. "But… aren't her feelings…"
Adam laughed, not unkindly. "Shalimar, if you'd been there fourteen years ago…" he shook his head slowly, "She never let her feelings for him… or anyone… cloud her judgment when it came to serious matters. In fact, that's why she left GenomeX."
Shalimar blinked. "Because of Eckhart?"
"Partially," Adam nodded. He leaned back a bit more, trying to remember what happened and thinking of how to explain it to Shalimar. The more he thought back on it, the more he saw clues, hints of what he hadn't seen before. "As the … well. As the mutant project became more and more advanced, we all grew more apart. Eckhart and I, especially, began the fight we've been continuing today. She thought we were both being childish and stupid," he chuckled softly at a memory. "Sometimes she was right. At any rate… the last day she was there, she tried to talk to me. I was too busy… I should have listened to her, I think. Or at least, tried to talk her out of what she was going to do next." He sighed heavily.
"What did she do?" Shalimar blinked, caught up in the story.
"She went and talked to Eckhart. I don't know what they talked about, but I remember they must have talked for nearly an hour and a half. The next day, she was gone. Her locker was cleaned out, her car wasn't there. They said she'd transferred. Later they said she'd left. We never found out where she went."
Shalimar blinked. "So she and Eckhart weren't lovers."
Adam shook his head slowly. "Not that I ever heard. I don't think it even entered his mind as a possibility. He just… wasn't the sort of man to think like that about her," he finished lamely, not sure he could say what he meant.
Shalimar nodded slowly, looking thoughtful and troubled. "I guess that's what Emma meant," she said, as though finally realizing something. Adam looked at her curiously, but she shrugged it off. "Let's go get the others."
Adam nodded, figuring she'd tell him if or when she was good and ready. "Where are they?"
"Down with the horses," Shalimar grinned, and it was positively gleeful. "Angelique's teaching Brennan and Jesse how to ride."
"Heels down! Back straight!" Angelique called. She sounded like she was trying not to
laugh, and as Adam rounded the corner he could see why. Jesse looked about as comfortable as a
sack of potatoes on the back of the horse he was riding. Angelique herself was on a big black
horse in the middle of the ring; it looked like one of the horses she'd been riding in the
show.
Brennan and Emma were also on horseback, in the ring next to the one Angelique and Jesse were in. Brennan was on a red-brown horse (which Adam vaguely remembered was something called a 'blood bay'), but Emma was on one of Angelique's favored blacks. Emma also looked significantly more comfortable than Brennan did, which made Adam chuckle softly.
"See?" he heard her say as Brennan's horse began to bounce it's head jerkily, making Brennan even more nervous. "That's why you leave the reins a little bit loose."
"Easy for you to say," Brennan muttered.
Adam chuckled again, moving towards the center of the ring. Angelique glanced over at him, glanced over at the pair in the other ring, then back at Adam and winked at him. Adam nodded, grinning.
"Uh… help?" Jesse said, sounding slightly panicked. Adam fought down the urge to laugh. Jesse's horse wasn't actually doing anything but ambling over to the hay-pile, but Jesse looked very disturbed by the fact that the horse was doing something without his permission and with him on its back. Angelique shook her head, grinning, and rode over to take the reins.
"Be nice," she murmured to the horse, who nickered in response. She glanced over at Jesse. "Feel up to more or…"
Jesse dismounted quickly, starting to get off towards the right and then sliding off on the left side of the horse at a look from Angelique. "Noooo," he said quickly. "No thanks, honestly, ma'am…" He backed away from the horse. "That's more than enough for me for one day."
Angelique chuckled, leading the horse over to the side of the ring and dismounting, herself. "Hey there, Adam," she greeted him with a one-armed horse-smelling hug and a kiss on the cheek. Adam blinked for a second, startled, and found himself blushing. And then he could hear the snickers from all five of them, and shook it off.
"You seem to have done well for yourself," he said, watching as Emma and Brennan rode up behind him. Shalimar exchanged some sort of complicated look with Emma and Angelique that he only barely caught, which caused all three of them to burst into giggles. Adam, Brennan, and Jesse exchanged a confused look, feeling abruptly out of the loop.
"Well, breeding horses pays well if you can pull it off. I got lucky," she smiled. "And I had the advantage of starting back when I had a day job." She scritched her horse's nose and then gently shoved it off her shoulder. "You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself too."
He shrugged slightly, not sure how much he could get away with saying. Around them the other four were making their way up to the barn. "We get by. Some days are better than others."
Angelique nodded slowly, leading both horses up to the barn after the others. "You can always call, you know, if you need a safe haven. Or just someone to talk to. Any of you. As long as you all keep in mind that the farm is neutral territory, no grudges go in and none come out…"
"Like Switzerland," Adam smiled, remembering a past conversation.
Angelique chuckled. "Yeah. Like Switzerland."
They stood there for a little while, watching each other, smiling and remembering past and happier days. The horses tugged their heads down to crop grass, and Angelique let them. Fingertips brushed the side of her face hesitantly, and she looked up just in time for Adam's lips to brush softly against hers. And then she looked away, stepping back. Neither of them said anything. Neither of them needed to; they knew each other well enough to understand.
"Don't bother," Angelique called up to Emma as they neared the barn and she could see Emma fumbling with the bridle and tie-lines. "I'll get them. You go on and get back home. I'm sure at least some of you are dying to get into something that doesn't smell like horse sweat," she grinned, and Jesse grinned back sheepishly. Angelique laughed softly and led her horses around to the second barn.
"Hey, um…" Emma spoke up hesitantly as the Mutant X'ers started heading down to the driveway. "Would it be all right if I came around… every once in a while? I… umm…" she looked down shyly, and Angelique had the feeling she knew what was coming.
"You caught the horse bug and now you want riding lessons," she chuckled. "Sure. Come by tomorrow, if you want, I don't have the kids up here then so it should be a quiet day."
Emma grinned, and Angelique grinned back. "Okay… yeah! I'll be around. But not at 6 in the morning." They laughed.
"See you tomorrow," Angelique waved as Emma started back down to the road, and waited till the girl was out of sight before turning the blacks loose in the paddock near the barn. It was good to see Adam again, even with the trouble between him and Mason. And it was good to see that he'd done well for himself, up to and including some very bright protégés.
The whickering and sudden agitation of the horses was her only warning. The dart hit her in the shoulder, and then another in the thigh, then third and a fourth. The tranquilizers overwhelmed her system; she tried to fight them, and failed. As her face descended towards the soft, packed dirt floor of the barn, she wondered why Mason was doing this. And then she wondered if she was going to wake up again. And then she was unconscious.
Mason stared at the team of four he had sent to apprehend the woman. "I told you to bring her
unharmed," he said in deceptively mild tones. "I suppose you didn't think one dosage was
enough?"
Agent Starkweather looked nervous. "Sir, you told us she was a biokinetic, and a very skilled one… we thought it was better to overwhelm her before…"
"But not with a faster-acting drug. You chose quantity over quality." His voice was soft. Eckhart was never more dangerous than when he was speaking softly and calmly.
"Sir, I…" Starkweather swallowed. Special powers or no, he wasn't going to live through this one. A beeping from the computer in front of Eckhart gave the distraught agent a few minutes' reprieve. All four agents slumped in silent relief as Eckhart's stance relaxed ever so slightly. Whatever was on that computer had saved their lives.
"You are lucky, Agent Starkweather," he said in that same mild, quiet tone. "She's doing quite well, and has suffered no ill effects from your… over-enthusiasm."
"Sir," Starkweather drew himself up. No need to cringe if he wasn't about to be put into stasis, after all. He might even get a promotion out of this, eventually, or at least a certain amount of preferential treatment. And, reported to the right authorities, maybe it would even get Eckhart in trouble. Though he'd save that for a dire day; he wasn't dumb enough to try and blackmail Eckhart. "Thank you, sir."
"You can go," Eckhart said, sitting back down and promptly starting to ignore them all. "Tell no one about this."
"Yes, sir," Starkweather and his team turned and left the room. Eckhart didn't even notice; his attention was already on the detailed medical reports coming in from the doctor he had sworn to secrecy and assigned to her case. He would keep her from the official channels of the GSA for as long as he could, ensuring her safety and that she was treated with the utmost care. As precious as she was, he wasn't going to risk losing her again. Not to Adam, not to the GSA, not to anybody.
He would put her into stasis himself; he would make sure nothing happened to her. And then, when everything was going smoothly again and the last of the Mutant X group had been dealt with, he could bring her out and bring her back to the fold. With her at GenomeX again, everything would start to go right again. It would finally be as it all had been before. He smiled slightly, closed his eyes, and indulged himself in a little daydream of what it would be like to have her back again.